Here are some more coffee-related articles and books. These are in addition to those cited in Jennifer McLean's paper, Merging Ecological and Social Criteria for Agriculture: the Case of Coffee.

Many of the works cited here are annotated, and the annotator's initials are given at the end of the entry. (Brief biographies of the annotators are available through the "Coffee Resource People" page.)

If you come across a resource that should be listed here, please submit an annotated bibliographic entry for it to David Gorsline (DLG). We hope these coffee sources will be useful to you. The works are found in the following categories:

• Monographs
• Overviews and popular treatments
• Towards "sustainable" coffee
• Relationship of shade and taste
• Relationship of shade and production
• Farmers' decisions and sun vs. shade in general
• Production and land use data
• Coffee and biodiversity
• Effect of agrochemicals
• Definitions of "shade coffee"
• Political and socio-economic landscape
• Trade implications
• Forest fragmentation effects
• Other pertinent readings

Monographs

• Dicum, Gregory and Luttinger, Nina 1999. The Coffee Book. New Press.

  Provides a good treatment of the economics of the international coffee trade, and one chapter each on the environmental and social issues involved in the coffee business. (Full disclosure: they used our co-op, Equal Exchange, as an example of how fair trade begins to address some of the structural inequities of the industry). (Entry added 22 April 2001. Annotated by Rodney North, Equal Exchange.)

• Kricher, John 1997. A Neotropical Companion. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

  Kricher's subject is the ecosystems of the tropical Western Hemisphere -- not just rain forests but also dry forests, the Brazilian woodland called cerrado, and coastal systems like mangroves -- and the creatures that live there. There are 177 small color photographs, several devoted to agriculture and coffee. (Entry added 23 April 2001. Annotated by DLG)

• Pendergrast, Mark 1999. Uncommon Grounds: The History of Coffee and How It Transformed Our World. New York: Basic Books.

  Pendergrast covers everything you might want to know about coffee: the development of this Ethiopian shrub, its spread in tropical regions and acceptance in Europe and North America, the growth of 19th and 20th century coffee mega-companies, inter-American political intrigue, the rise of the current coffee craze, and then some—all the intimate details of process, market, and how intertwined this plant is with our north/south hemispheric relations, examining the impact of coffee in Brazil, Colombia, Central America, Mexico and elsewhere. (Annotated by PJB)

• Rice, Paul D. and Jennifer McLean 1999. Sustainable Coffee at the Crossroads. Washington, DC: Consumer's Choice Council.

  This is an important evaluation of the various sustainable coffee initiatives and seals—shade-grown, fair trade, and organic. It assesses the dividing lines in the debate, the potential for common standards,and makes some thoughtful conclusions and qualified recommendations.

  You can find a copy of the report at http://www.consumerscouncil.org. (Annotated by PJB)

• Williams, Robert G. 1994. States and Social Evolution: Coffee and the Rise of National Governments in Central America. Univ. of North Carolina Press.

  Provides a great historical introduction to how societies, power structures and governments unfolded in distinct way in various central american countries (including Guatemala and Costa Rica and Nicaragua). (Entry added 22 April 2001. Annotated by Rodney North, Equal Exchange.)

Overviews and popular treatments

• Gorsline, David L. 2000. Coffee Talk. Birding 32(1): 66-68.

  This is a short, but helpful glossary of coffee terms. While designed for birders with an interest in shade-grown coffee, it is useful for others as well. (Entry added 18 March 2000. Annotated by PJB)

• Hull, Jennifer Bingham 1999. Can Coffee Drinkers Save the Rain Forest? The Atlantic Monthly 284(Aug, No. 2): 19-21.

  The author accompanies a buyers' trip to Finca Santa Isabel, Guatemala, one of the first farms to earn ECO-O.K. certification. US-AID's recent efforts to promote shade-grown and organic coffee are noted. The article cites SCAA's Ted Lingle and Sanctuary Coffee's Fred Houk that technification was in part a means to improve the yield of arabica, in the face of pressure to blend more low-quality robusta into mass-market brands. Lingle says, "Technification was a response to the industry focus on quantity, not quality."(Entry added 18 March 2000. Annotated by DLG)

• Sherry, Thomas W. 2000. Shade Coffee: A Good Brew Even in Small Doses. The Auk 117(3): 563-568.

  Presents an overview of recent field research. Offers three reasons why shade coffee research is important: shade coffee plantations are disappearing rapidly; coffee plantations comprise much of the tropical landscape; and coffee plantations provide ecosystem services, including pest control and contributions to soil fertility. (Entry added 23 April 2001. Annotated by DLG)

• Wille, Chris 1994. The Birds and the Beans. Audubon (Nov-Dec): 58-64.

  One of the earliest popular articles to sound the alert about coffee agriculture's effect on bird habitat. Focusses on Guatemala, and on the research of Russell Greenberg and Jay Vannini. A sidebar shows that awareness among roasters has increased since then: at the time (1994), Nestlé stated, "We have no relationship with the coffee growers," and Starbucks was skeptical that buyers would pay a shade-grown premium. Excellent photographs of shade- and sun-grown coffee farms. (Entry added 18 March 2000. Annotated by DLG)

Towards "sustainable" coffee

• Conservation Action Network (CAN). Principles of the Conservation Agriculture Network. New York: CAN Secretariat, Rainforest Alliance.

• ECO-OK 1998. Normas generales de produccion agricola con los criterios para cafe.

  Proposed national program. (Annotated by JM)

• McLean, Jennifer 2000. The Status of Shade Coffee. Birding 32(1): 61-65.

  The article's subtitle reads as follows: "the market grows, the debates continue, and wider issues emerge." That covers this article's main issues -- it is short, topical, and useful. (Entry added 18 March 2000. Annotated by PJB)

• PROMECAFE 1995. Antecedentes, conclusiones y recomendaciones. En seminario regional de consulta sobre caficultura sostenible. Boletin PROMECAFE 66/67. Guatemala.

Relationship of shade and taste

• Astua, G., G. J. Aguilar 1997. Prueba comparativa de las cualidades organolepticas de la bebida del Catimor T5175, var Costa Rica 95, Caturra y Catuai en ocho regiones cafetaleras de Costa Rica. In: Memorias del 18vo Simposio Latinoamericano de Caficultura, Septiembre 1997, San Jose.

• Muschler, R. G. 1998. Shade improves quality of Coffea arabica L. in a sub-optimal coffee zone of Costa Rica. In press.

Relationship of shade and production

• Aldazabal, M. and O. Alarcon 1994. Fisiologia del cafeto en condiciones de montana. III. Influencia del soly y la sombra en el crecimiento del fruto. Centro Agricola Cuba 21(3): 5-9.

• Muschler, R. G. 1997. Effectos de sombra de Erythrina poeppigiana sobre Coffea arabica vars. Caturra y Catimor. In: Memorias del 18vo Simposio Latinoamericano de Caficultura, San Jose, Costa Rica, Septiembre 1997.

Farmers' decisions and sun vs. shade in general

Themes: sun vs. shade technology, tree selection, pruning, inputs, costs and benefits

• Beer, J., R. Muschler, E. Somarriba, D. Kass 1997. Maderables como sombra para cafe. Boletin PROMECAFE 76/77.

  Brief overview of timber species in cafetales of Costa Rica. (Annotated by JM)

• Beer, J., R. Muschler, D. Kass, and E. Somarriba 1998. Shade management in coffee and cacao plantations. Agroforestry Systems 38: 139-164.

  A detailed review of research on various shade benefits, also numerous studies cited of negative effects of shade, including decreased yields and the occurrence of fungal diseases. (Annotated by JM)

• Muschler, R. G. 1997. Sombra o sol para un cafetal sostenible: Un nuevo enfoque de una vieja discusion. In: Memorias del 18vo Simposio Latinoamericano de Caficultura, San Jose, Costa Rica, Septiembre 1997.

  A decision model is proposed based on soil condition and other factors. (Annotated by JM)

• Mussak, M. F. and J. G. Laarman 1989. Farmer's production of timber trees in the cacao-coffee region of coastal Ecuador. Agrofor. Syst 9: 155-170.

• Swantz, S. 1997. Economic Differences between Shaded and Full Sun Coffee Cultivation in Costa Rica. Paper presented at the First Sustainable Coffee Conference. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution.

Production and land use data

• FAO 1996. Production Yearbook 49: 171-173. Rome: FAO.

Coffee and biodiversity

Themes: Assessment of biodiversity, community structure, and habitat quality of shade coffee, cacao, citrus, and other agroforestry or plantation systems.
Implications: pest control and predator dominance, species survival of migrant and resident birds, maintenance of forest corridors and buffers, dispersal of native tree species

Note on ants: studies of ant diversity and community structure in tropical forests are key to assessing the biodiversity of these forests or agroforestry systems. Ants constitute the greatest number of animal species and greatest animal biomass in tropical forests around the world (refer to numerous figures cited in Power 1996). The territories of both ground and tree-foraging ants tend to determine the spatial pattern of the entire arthropod community (see papers cited in Power 1996). Power 1996 provides a good overview of ant diversity in different forest and agricultural landscapes. (Annotated by JM)

• Alguilar-Ortiz, F. 1982. Estudio ecologico de las aved del cafetal. In: Estudios Ecologia y el Agroecosistema Cafetalesa, edited by E. Avila Jimenez, pp. 103-128. INIREB Mexico.

• Greenberg, R. 1996. Managed Forest Patches and the Diversity of Birds in Southern Mexico. In: Forest Patches in Tropical Landscapes. Ed. J. Schellas and R. Greenberg. Washington, DC: Island Press.

• Holloway, J. D. and N. E. Stork 1991. The dimensions of biodiversity: the use of invertebrates as indicators of human impact. In: The Biodiversity of Microorganisms and Invertebrates: its Role in Sustainable Agriculture, ed. by D. L. Hawksworth. London: CAB Intl.

• Kricher, John 2000. Evaluating Shade-Grown Coffee and Its Importance to Birds. Birding. 32(1): 57-60.

  Kricher writes a review of recent bird-related research. He summarizes some interesting findings on coffee plantation structure relating to avian diversity.(Entry added 18 March 2000. Annotated by PJB)

• Lobeira, Santiago 1999. Biodiversity Implications of Growing Coffee in the Sierra de Manantlan's Biosphere Reserve.

  Explores the possibility of introducing coffee as a means of preserving biodiversity in Mexico's Manantlan Reserve. Identifies obstacles to success, and concludes with policy recommendations, including government compensation and education of farmers. (Annotated by DLG)

• Majer, J. D. 1976. The ant mosaic in Ghana cocoa farms: Further structural considerations. J. Appl. Ecol. 13:145-156.

• Majer, J. D., J. H. C. Delabie and M. R. B. Smith 1994. Arboreal ant community patterns in Brazilian cocoa farms. Biotropica 26: 73-83.

• Moguel, Patricia and Victor M. Toledo 1999. Biodiversity Conservation in Traditional Coffee Systems of Mexico. Conservation Biology 13(1): 11-21.

  Reviews the literature of quantitative biodiversity data for shaded and unshaded coffee agriculture in Mexico, covering five groups of organisms: plants, arthropods, birds, amphibians and reptiles, and terrestrial mammals. Estimates the absolute and relative distribution across Mexico of the five coffee production systems: shaded monoculture is most prevalent (42%). Spanish abstract available. (Annotated by DLG)

• Nestel, D. and F. Dickshen 1990. The foraging kinetics of ground ant communities in different Mexican coffee agroecosystems. Oecologia 84: 58-63.

• Perfecto, I., and R. Snelling. 1997? Biodiversity and tropical ecosystem transformation: Ant diversity in the coffee agroecosystem in Costa Rica.

• Power, A. G. 1996. Arthropod Diversity in Forest Patches and Agroecosystems of Tropical Landscapes. In: Forest Patches in Tropical Landscapes, ed. Schellas and Greenberg. Washington, DC: Island Press.

• Robbins, C. D. et al. 1992. Comparison of neotropical migrant landbird populations wintering in tropical forest, isolated forest fragments, and agricultural lands. In: Ecology and Conservation of Neotropical Migrant Landbirds, ed. Hagan and Johnston. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.

• Room, P. M. 1971. The relative distribution of ant species in Ghana's cocoa farms. J. Animal Ecology 40: 735-751.

• Roth, D. S., I. Perfecto, and B. Rathcke 1994. The effects of management systems on ground-foraging ant diveristy in Costa Rica. Ecol. Applications 4: 423-436.

• Stork, N. E., and M. J. D. Brendell 1990. Variation in the insect fauna of Sulawesi trees with season, altitude, and forest type. In: Insects and the Rain Forests of South East Asia, ed. Knight and Holloway. London: Royal Entomol. Soc.

• Torres, J. A. 1984. Diversity and distribution of ant communities in Puerto Rico. Biotropica 16: 296-303.

• Wunderle, J. and S. C. Latta 1994. Population biology and turnover of Nearctic migrants wintering in small coffee plantations in the Dominican Republic. Journal für Ornithologie 135: 477.

Effect of agrochemicals

• Bouharmont, P., J. Awemo 1993. Etude de l'effet de traitements herbicides au Roundup sur la croissance et la production du cafeier Robusta. Café Cacao Thé 37(3).

  Roundup was found to depress coffee production for the 1st 3 harvest yrs, compared with weeding. (Annotated by JM)

• Boyce et al 1994. Cafe y Desarrollo Sostenible: del Cultivo Agroquimico a la Produccion Organica en Costa Rica. Heredia: EFUNA.

• Njoroge, J.M. 90. Evaluation of Gallant, Basta and different glyphosphat formulations on weed managment in coffee. Nairobi: Kenya Coffee 55(650).

  Roundup resulted in 100% increased coffee production, but note that total production only 433 kg/ha. (Annotated by JM)

Definitions of "shade coffee"

• Fuentes-Flores, R. 1979. Coffee production systems in Mexico. In: Workshop on Agroforestry Systems in Latin America, F. De las Salas, ed. Turrialba, Costa Rica: Centro Agronómico Tropical de Investigación y En señanza (CATIE).

• Holly, Don 1999. What is Shade Coffee? Specialty Coffee Chronicle (Mar-Apr): 5.

  Summarizes the Specialty Coffee Association of America's definition of shade-grown coffee. Describes a farmer's pragmatic approach to shade, and points out that "those that wish to sell 'shade' coffee... have a lot of wiggle room in which to justify their practices." (Entry added 18 March 2000. Annotated by DLG)

• Nolasco, M. 1985. Café y sociedad en México. México, DF: Centro de Ecodesarrollo.

• Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center, 1997. Shade Management Criteria for Bird-Friendly Coffee.

Political and socio-economic landscape

Themes: community-state conflict or partnership, tenure rights, technological trends in agriculture, national programs, effects of globalization

• Alcorn, J. B. 1996. Forest use and ownership: patterns, issues, and recommendations. In: Forest Patches in Tropical Landscapes, ed. Schellas and Greenberg. Washington, DC: Island Press.

• Alcorn, J. B., and V. Toledo 1995. The role of tenurial shifts in ecological sustainability: property rights and natural resource management in Mexico. In: Property Rights in Social and Ecological Context: Case Studies and Design Applications, ed. Hanna and Munasinghe. Washington, DC: The World Bank.

• deGraaff, J. 1986. The Economics of Coffee. Pudoc, Wageningen, Netherlands.

• Grossman, Julie 2001. Mountain Groan.

  A report from Chiapas state, Mexico: small-holding coffee farmers are being squeezed by the government's low-intensity war against an indigenous movement called the Zapatista National Liberation Army, which champions self-sufficiency. The article reviews recent developments in certification programs for fair trade and organic labelling, from the farmer's viewpoint. A paradox: small-scale farmers, unable for years to afford chemicals, have been farming organically by default, but only large corporation-supported plantations are able to meet the record-keeping requirements of organic-label certification.

  "To the Chiapas farmers, fair trade means something more than economic independence. 'We are not only in the process of organizing to export coffee,' says Mut Vitz famer Mariano Gonzáles Gonzáles. 'We want to show consumers that indigenous people have dignity.'" (Entry added 22 April 2001. Annotated by DLG)

• Hutto, Richard L. 1992. Habitat distributions of migratory landbird species in western Mexico. In: Ecology and Conservation of Neotropical Landbirds, ed. Hagan and Johnston. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.

  Proceedings of the 1989 Manomet Symposium.

• Marquez, C. 1988. La produccion agricola de la union de uniones ejidales y socieddes campesinas de produccion de Chiapas: Problematica y perspectivas de desarrollo. Professional thesis in agronomy. Univ. Autonoma Chapingo, Mexico.

• Rice, R. 1993. New technology and coffee production: examining landscape transformation and international aid in northern Latin America. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center.

• Ridler, N. B. 1982. Implications of new coffee technology in Central America. Desarrollo Rural en las Americas 14(2): 63-71.

  Includes national production and income data. (Annotated by JM)

• Toledo, V. 1994. La Ecologia, Chiapas, y Articulo 27. Mexico: Ediciones Quinto Sol.

• DeWalt, B. R., and M. W. Rees 1994. The End of Agrarian Reform in Mexico: Past Lessons, Future Prospects. San Diego: Univ. California.

Trade implications

• Commission for Environmental Cooperation 1999. Measuring Consumer Interest in Mexican Shade-grown Coffee: An Assessment of the Canadian, Mexican and U.S. Markets. Montréal: CEC.

  This study presents an assessment of consumer interest in, and potential demand for, Mexican shade-grown coffee in North America. It confirms other market surveys, which demonstrate a certain reluctance among consumers to pay a price premium for Mexican shade-grown coffee, with U.S. residents more sensitive to paying extra for shade-grown coffee than either Canadian or Mexican consumers. An annex presents recent work from the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center towards criteria for defining shade coffee.

  A copy of the report is available at http://www.cec.org. (Annotated by PJB)

• Seattle Audubon Society 1999. Coffee, Birds and Trade Policy: Making the Connection.

  This is a combination of material, with a primer on coffee production, sun vs. shade, shade gradients/spectrum, the impact on birds, organic, fair trade, small-scale coffee production, and the WTO. It's an effort to blend the issues of fair trade and shade coffee.

  You can access the report from the following site: http://www.earthjustice.org/work/international.html. (Annotated by PJB)

Forest fragmentation effects

• Bierregaard, Richard O., and V. H. Dale 1996. Island in an ever-changing sea: the ecological and socioeconomic dynamics of Amazonian rainforest fragments. In: Forest Patches in Tropical landscapes, ed. Schelhas and Greenberg. Washington, DC: Island Press.

  Observed effects on fauna and forest structure after fragmentation into different sizes (Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project of Manaus) and computer model of land use change (DELTA). See also Lessons from Amazonia, book in press 1998. (Annotated by JM)

• Guindon, Carlos F. 1996. The Importance of Forest Fragments to the Maintenance of Regional Biodiversity in Costa Rica. In: Forest Patches in Tropical Landscapes, ed. Schelhas and Greenberg. Washington, DC: Island Press.

  Farmers' micro-corridors and servidumbres ecologicas (easements) , as they pertain to altitudinal migrants such as quetzals. (Annotated by JM)

• Schelhas, J. 1996. Land use choice and forest patches in Costa Rica. In: Forest Patches in Tropical Landscapes, ed. Schelas and Greenberg. Washington, DC: Island Press.

  More modelling, some references to coffee. (Annotated by JM)

• Wunderle, Joseph M., Jr. and Latta, Steven C. 2000. Winter Site Fidelity of Nearctic Migrants in Shade Coffee Plantations of Different Sizes in the Dominican Republic. The Auk 117(3): 596-614.

  The paper presents the study of three Nearctic migrant species (American Redstart, Black-and-white Warbler, and Black-throated Blue Warbler) wintering in 14 isolated shade coffee plantations in the Dominican Republic.

  From the Discussion: "We found that winter site fidelity in three Nearctic migrant species in shade coffee plantations was comparable to site fidelity found in some native tropical forests.... Our findings indicate that increasing tropical forest fragmentation ... may not severely exacerbate the negative effects of habitat loss from tropical deforestation for these three species of migrants." (Entry added 23 April 2001. Annotated by DLG)

Other pertinent readings

• Greenberg, Russell et al. The Impact of Avian Insectivory on Arthropods and Leaf Damage in Some Guatemalan Coffee Plantations. Ecology 81(6): 1750-1755.

  Abstract: Experimental work has established that vertebrates can have a large impact on the abundance of arthropods in temperate forest and grasslands, as well as on tropical islands. The importance of vertebrate insectivory has only rarely been evaluated for mainland tropical ecosystems. In this study, we used exclosures to measure the impact of birds on arthropods in Guatemalan coffee plantations. Variation in shade management on coffee farms provides a gradient of similar habitats that vary in the complexity of vegetative structure and floristics. We hypothesized that shaded coffee plantations, which support a higher abundance of insectivorous birds, would experience relatively greater levels of predation than would the sun coffee farms. We found a reduction (64-80%) in the number of large (> 5 mm in length) but not small arthropods in both coffee types which was consistent across most taxonomic groups and ecological guilds. We also found a small but significant increase in the frequency of herbivore damage on leaves in the exclosures. This level of predation suggests that birds may help in reducing herbivore numbers and is also consistent with food limitation for birds in coffee agroecosystems. However, the presence of shade did not have an effect on levels of insectivory. (Entry added 22 April 2001.)

• Muschler, R. G., and A. Bonnemann 1997. Potentials and limitations of agroforestry for changing land-use in the tropics: experiences from Central America. Forest Ecol. Mgmt. 91:61-73.

  History of research and extension services of the CATIE institution (Costa Rica) and lessons learned. (Annotated by JM)

• Rainforest Alliance 1997?. The Conservation Coffee Campaign Organizer's Kit.

  This 49-page booklet is a manual on promoting shade coffee. It covers an introduction to the issue, event options (including cupping, petitioning, and letter-writing), a media campaign outline (with sample press releases), sources for certified shade-grown coffee, references, a list of birds commonly seen on coffee plantations, related clip art, and other material. It is available as a PDF file at the Alliance's web site. (Entry added 22 April 2001. Annotated by PJB)

Last updated: 23 April 2001. Send comments, recommendations, corrections to David Gorsline.