What Does Shade Grown Coffee Mean Anyway?

We carry Grounds for Change coffee at One Green Street and we love it! Grounds for Change is USDA Certified Organic, Fair Trade and Shade Grown. I totally get the first two attributes but had to do my research and talk to Kelsey at GFC to get the skinny on what "Shade Grown" really means. This is what they said:
Why Shade Grown Coffee Is Important
Written by Grounds for Change for ENN.com

A shade grown coffee farmer stands in his coffee plot laced with orange, avocado, lime and scattered high-canopy trees. Birdsong rains down from above and the rustle of animals in the twigs and fallen leaves surrounds him on all sides. Dappled sunlight filters down and glints off the glossy green leaves of his mature coffee shrubs.

This vision is in sharp contrast to the sun-baked, acidified soil and relative silence found on standard full-sun coffee plantations, which must clear-cut the forest and use large quantities of toxic fertilizers and pesticides to keep their full-sun coffee productive.

Coffee is a shade-loving shrub and naturally-occurring varieties can only be cultivated under a canopy of shade trees. What we now refer to as "shade grown coffee" was the only way coffee was cultivated until 25 years ago, when new full-sun hybrids were developed that produced substantially higher yields for coffee farmers and allowed the creation of massive agribusiness-style plantations, which were not economically viable prior to this time.

The increased yields of full-sun coffee come at the expense of the environment, the flavor of the coffee itself and of migratory bird populations, which have been decimated in the last 25 years.

Today I am sampling a new blend to OGS, Mexico "Cafe Femenino" a medium roast grown by Women!!!! I love what this company is doing and the care and thought that goes into everything they do!!! Come by and sample some for yourself!