THE Lowly Peon

Starbucks Coffee: Green or Greenwashed?

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24 May 2010, 9:47am

I've been curious (and concerned) lately about my coffee drinking and its impact on the environment. Because of coffee bean growing climate, it seems reasonable to believe that drinking coffee is in some way supporting deforestation of rain forests and such. Also, most of the places I go couldn't support growing coffee, which means it'd have to be shipped across many miles.

Years back ~Benji!~ wrote a site for buywell, an organic coffee distributor that made tremendous efforts for supplying "green" coffee, which made me think about it.

For the last few months I've wanted to get to the bottom of it. I think I've been scared of what I find, especially because Starbucks seems like it must be evil, and it's without a doubt the best coffee available in China.

Check out this link for an analysis of how Starbucks is actually way ahead of the game compared to other coffee companies. I still feel like drinking coffee is like driving an SUV — something unnecessary but perhaps enjoyable, with great consequences on the planet — and I should stop drinking. But for now, I feel better about my going to Starbucks to buy my beans (which daisy and I grind ourselves).