It’s rich. Deep. Fragrant. Lively. Necessary. Ahh, coffee. Some people have never put a cup of coffee to their lips, but more than 1,000,000,000 have and do, every day.
We know about coffee’s reputation as a morning ritual. We know coffee pairs well with beans and eggs and pie, but wait – there’s more. Coffee is supporting environmental conservation.
We are aware of the destruction of forests all over the world so we can raise cattle to turn into hamburgers; procure wood for building 4-bedrooms and 16 chairs for two people; and create palm oil plantations for our ice cream and lipstick.
In Ethiopia, the great-great-500,000,000,000 times great-grandma of the world’s most welcome Coffea arabica, Farm Africa is encouraging small farmers to plant fast-growing trees for fuels and leave old forests alone, make alternative materials like bamboo drying mats for their coffee beans, and use efficient woodstoves rather than electricity for heat.
The result has been that 76% of farmers are using climate-smart methods, and their incomes have risen 280%.
It’s just a suggestion, like everything else in here. But we could do it with hemp. For paper.