My SO just dropped off an interesting article from The University 
Record, (U of M faculty News).
A quick google and I found it online at:http://www.umich.edu/news/index.html?Releases/2003/Dec03/r120403In short:
"campaigning to convince coffee drinkers to buy shade-grown coffee may 
do more harm
than good. The article said that's because the higher demand for shade 
coffee may
encourage growers to clear native forest and replace it with 
lower-diversity, multi-crop
shade coffee farms."
The article then goes on to recommend further tinkering in order to fix 
this.  So, knowing
the political diversity of this list, I feel compelled to rate this 
article as controversial but
definately on topic.  (:-))
jeff

There's a big problem in Peru with people going to non-agricultural 
forest lands, clearing out everything but scattered shade trees, 
planting coffee, and quickly having "shade grown organic" without a 
waiting period or transition process like a normal established farm 
would go through. Its not the image people have when they purchase 
"shade" coffee. But when you have complex issues reduced to postage 
stamp sized logos and poetic 20 word blurbs on packaging, these 
things are going to happen...
Tom
<Snip>
-- 
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
                   "Great coffee comes from tiny roasters"
            Sweet Maria's Home Coffee Roasting  -  Tom & Maria
                      http://www.sweetmarias.com                Thomspon Owen george

I think the term "shade coffee" should be ditched in favor for "jungle 
coffee" and/or "rainforest coffee" where coffee is integrated into 
jungle/rainforest settings rather than planted with the bare minimum of 
shade trees to justify the name "shade coffee". Or push for an 
"eco-friendly coffee" term or equivelant where so much diversity in a 
coffee grove is required related to nearby natural forests to take on 
the name and it's corresponding higher prices. It's a matter of closing 
up loopholes and keeping very public cultivation practices so no one 
sneaks and cheats. If they want a quick buck, they can do traditional 
scalping of the rainforest and make .30 a pound, but if they want the 
higher prices associated with fine coffee, they should be held 
accountable for their cultivation practices...
Cheers,
Mike
Jeffrey A. Bertoia wrote:
<Snip>

--- Tom & Maria - Sweet Maria's Coffee 
wrote:
<Snip>
 I read this post earlier this morning, and I'm still trying to
make sense of it. First because it's so very, very much cheaper
and faster to place some scattered shade trees in an existing
full-sun coffee farm to get "shade grown" coffee than it is to
clear forest and plant coffee seedlings. Second, because I
haven't come accross any greens that cost more for having been
shade grown, unless certified as such by the Audibon Society,
and even then it seems more a way to find a specialty market
instead of charging more. No shade growing coffee farmer I know
(well over 90% of Oaxacan is grown with plenty of shade trees)
recieves any premium for having the shade trees, and, in fact,
makes less money per sack, or per acre, because of the lower
yields per acre and all the hand work nessesary where tractors
and sprayers can't go (forested hills). Could the problem in
Peru be that landless people just want to get into the coffee
business and are clearing the cheapest land to do so? If so,
that's old news, and nothing to do with an awarness of "shade
grown" in the US and Europe. Or- Maybe there's some unique kind
of specialty buyer there that is all of a sudden encouraging
it.(?) What I've seen the last few years in Mexico are some of
the smarter big estate growers planting more shade trees and
replacing much of their hybrid full-sun varieties because forest
grown Typicas don't need the constant chemical treatments that
cost more every year as the price of coffee keeps falling.
Ironicly, and sadly, many (thousands) smaller 3d generation
forest grown coffee farms are being abandoned because there is
no price premium, and that land gets bought very cheap, logged
and burned and turned over to cattle grazing and severe erosion
soon after. 
  Charlie
<Snip>http://sweetmarias.com/maillistinfo.html#personalsettings=====
Brick Oven Roasting in British Columbia
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Not that I'm necessarily disagreeing with him but his post seemed a 
good springboard for a short rant...
On Jan 26, 2004, at 2:26pm, Oaxaca Charlie wrote:
<Snip>
Of course, it's a lot faster to clear forest than it is to wait for 
shade trees to grow.
<Snip>
Or landed people who want more land that is currently "being wasted."
<Snip>
Kind of makes you wonder who was behind the push toward full-sun 
varieties in the first place.
"Oh good, I see you cut down all those nasty shade trees and planted 
that high-yield variety I told you about," said the USAID 
representative. "It'll be much easier to harvest and you'll get more 
coffee out of each tree. Did I mention that you're going to need to 
fertilize these trees on a regular basis and spray them with 
pesticides. I just happen to have some contacts in the agri-chemical 
industry I can put you in touch with. They can supply you with 
everything your going to need."
On Jan 25, 2004, at 10:23pm, Tom & Maria - Sweet Maria's Coffee wrote:
<Snip>
I think this is the take home message here. It's really easy to subvert 
well intentioned programs like Shade Grown and Certified Organic -- and 
probably even Fair Trade -- when most consumers become fixated on the 
labels and don't really want to take the time to understand the issues. 
It's even difficult for people who do want to take the time to 
understand the issues and make choices as consumers that truly support 
what these labels are supposed to represent. You never know for sure 
that you aren't being tricked into supporting something you didn't 
intend to.
It's a difficult problem with no easy solutions. By the way, here's an 
interesting explanation of the different things Shade Grown can mean:
   http://www.seattleaudubon.org/shadecoffee/business/faq.htmlScroll down to the section titled "What is the shade spectrum or shade 
gradient?".
John Blumel