Coffee plantations deforesting the tropics.

Millions of acres of tropical rainforest across the world have been cleared in the last 20 years for coffee plantations.....particularly in central America.

This trend continues to go on worldwide at the present time.

Major coffee growers/sellers/marketers such as Folger's, Nestle's and Maxwell House whose coffee products have a semi-monopoly on grocery store shelves in the U.S. and worldwide are reluctant to offer "shade grown" coffee products.... which means the coffee product offered is derived from coffee trees/shrubs which can be planted under the canopy of the tropical rainforest without clearing out the forest.

Instead, Nestle's, Folger's and Maxwell House, for the most part, continue to sell sun grown coffee which is planted in the sun on land cleared of tropical forest...which of course is cheaper for them because they can plant more coffee plants per acre.

Sun grown coffee is extremely destructive to the land causing erosion, pesticices run-off, water pollution and near total annihilation of bird/animal species habitat as well as trees and plants.

You also, most likely, will not easily find many shade grown/fair trade/organic coffee products sold by Folger's, Nestle's or Maxwell House on grocery store shelves, even though these giant corporations have the resources to plant, sell and market shade grown/fair trade/organic coffee on a large scale giving consumers the choice to not participate in tropical deforestation and make a significant reduction in worldwide tropical deforestation rates.

Although these companies may sell a specialty brand of shade grown/fair trade coffee somewhere, I have not been able to find it on the shelves of Kroger's or other major grocery chains in my area.

Although much of their coffees are dirt cheap, the price we are actually paying is the loss of tropical forests and species diversity worldwide as well as the underpaying and exploitation of coffee plantation workers and coffee growers worldwide.

We the undersigned would like to see Nestle's, Folger's and Maxwell House dedicate a significant portion of their coffee profits to sustainable shade grown/fair trade/organic farming projects to be certified by the most stringent rules of shade grown/fair trade coffee that is not "greenwashed" to be shade grown because you left 1 or 10 forest trees standing when you cleared the land.....and to also practice and certify their coffee products as fair trade which respects workers rights and fair wages.

We also request that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration establish and enforce better regulation and certification programs concerning coffee products to stop worldwide tropical deforestation, the degradation of land and water and the exploitation of coffee plantation workers etc.

to learn more about this subject go to:

http://www.motherearthcoffeeco.com/shade-grown.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffee_and_the_environment

http://www.coffeehabitat.com/2006/12/pesticides_used.html

http://www.coffeehabitat.com/2009/05/when-birders-drink-folgers-part-2.html

http://www.ubspectrum.com/article/40263

http://www.squidoo.com/greencoffee

http://www.abirdsworld.com/html/coffee_connection.html

http://www.heinebroscoffee.com/36/shadegrowncoffee

http://www.charityguide.org/volunteer/fifteen/shade-grown-coffee.htm