Why aren’t more coffees triple certified?

If you’re asking this question, consider yourself a coffee nerd, like me. Triple certified coffee’s certified organic, fair trade, and shade grown.

As of now, it’s tough to find this tri-certified stuff. One cutting-edge company’s the Utah-based Caffe Ibis, which I ran into at the Natural Products Expo West.

And as a gal who’s been concentrating more on fair trade issues than the shade grown stuff, I asked — Why’s it important to get shade-grown certified?

Basically, shade-grown certification is a guarantee that biodiversity has been preserved. Says Randy (above) of Caffee Ibis: “The general public’s interested in biodiversity.”

And biodiversity is sometimes not an issue of concern for coffees that are allegedly shade grown, but not certified.

Yummy coffee requires shade, so growing coffee in shady areas also tends to help coffee farmers get a better price. The risk is that people can clearcut a rainforest, then plant a buncha random trees to give shade to coffee crops and call their stuff shade grown, despite the fact that nothing’s been done to preserve rainforest diversity. “Everyone’s using the Smithsonian language” about biodiversity, says Randy. But many of these people just aren’t doing the environmental work that the Smithsonian tries to do.

Meaning: coffees growers in regions that house rainforests have a double responsibility. They grow coffee for sale, but they also can help maintain the biodiversity of this rainforest land. According to Randy, the premium paid for shade-grown certified coffee can serve as an incentive to encourage these coffee farmers to serve as stewarts of the land.

I get the sense that the biodiversity issue is one that’s especially crucial for coffee that’s grown in rainforest areas than say, Kenyan coffee — though I could be wrong. But I’ll keep looking into it –

The bad news — Reliable and thorough shade grown certification’s like super expensive. That Smithsonian seal (right) costs Caffe Ibis an extra 25 cents a pound. The fair trade certification by TransFair costs between 5-10 cents a pound. I’m guessing organic certification costs somewhat less than that, but you can see how the costs really add up for triple certified coffees.

Why does Randy do it? “I’m a bird guy,” he says, smiling :)

A “how to shop for coffee” for bird-loving coffee drinkers to come :)

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