A bittersweet guide to coffee
Article written as part of Ethical Consumer magazine, May/June 2022
An article written for the Ethical Consumer bi-monthly magazine (print and digital) covering the histories, politics, and social-environmental ethics of coffee supply chains.
“Widely thought to have originated in Kaffa, Ethiopia, coffee bushes were historically an understory plant. They require shade from trees to protect the bushes’ leaves from browning in the sun. Since the 1970s, though, selective breeding has led to the widespread production of ‘sun-grown’ coffee. This shift might have maximised production in the short term, and helped to deliver cheaper coffee, but has come at great social and ecological cost.”