My parents are organic farmers, I've picked a lot of weeds by hand and yelled at neighbours who wanted to spray on windy days. I guess you could say I know a thing or two about farming.

I think he is pretty outspoken, but I wouldn't say "it's an incredibly biased and lopsided article that shows he only pays attention to sources of information that confirm his current beliefs"

He is right in saying that natural doesn't = healthy, and using pesticides doesn't = unhealthy. There is much more to the equation on what is healthy and unhealthy.

There's also more to the equation that US, that is, all of the other organisms with which we share the planet. So human health is important, but so is ecosystem health.

But it's true that the tradeoffs are difficult to assess, and that there is a lot to the equation. For example, a "lightly" sprayed local product may cause less total impact than a "pure" organic product packaged in plastic and transported by truck or plane for thousands of miles.

I think the goal ought to be to seek as low a total impact as possible. Buy local, in-season foods when possible, organic when possible, avoiding lots of packaging etc. But hey, I'm not planning to give up espresso so I guess I'm part of the problem...

I agree with you there, it's the overall impact or the carbon footprint of the food we eat we need to think about as well as the overall health to us.

Farming is not natural, having a high concentration on one plant causes problems the the ecosystem. Spraying pesticides is to deal with pests that are only pests because of farming.

bachampion wrote:
He is right in saying that natural doesn't = healthy, and using pesticides doesn't = unhealthy. There is much more to the equation on what is healthy and unhealthy.

True, as I said before it's possible to do just about anything in this world with pride and compassion or not give a crap about anyone but yourself and do poor work.

He gives a lot of possible downsides to organic farming without mentioning any of it's potential positive qualities. That is lopsided and biased.

While a good discussion of the pros/cons of our preferences for organics (I fall in the organics and have for 30+ years), we seem to have strayed from original poster's question.

I'm wondering if anyone here is knowledgeable about pesticide use in coffee production... So I'm wondering how much pesticides are used on the small farm or direct trade arabicas.

Wow! some great information posted here. Thank you to the people who responded. I always wondered why this is not a bigger thing on coffee sites. Most review sites will mention organic offerings but as a thing in passing rather than the most important detail. After reading these posts I am more determined than ever to stick with organic, even if the selection is a bit narrower. At least it is some information if not the entire picture. It is difficult to get information about the means of growing otherwise. At least with an organic certification we know a little bit about the way the coffee was grown. It seems to me that the review sights should make the green status a major factor in the coffee rating numbers.

When I distributed coffee, I surveyed those who bought coffee from me. Organic certification was important to about 5-7% of those who bought.

One alternative to "certified organic" is naturally grown coffee by smallholder growers or areas where it's the prevailing custom (no chemical input). The industry is dealing with both environmental issues and low coffee C futures. Organic coffee cost more to produce, has less yeld, and sometime is sold as non-organic for lack of orders. Instead of helping small farmers, in some cases the long certification process along with lower yeld/sales can devastate a farmer.

One suggested solution is for roasters to establish long term direct trade relationships with growers, where the buyers have some input with the growers. Hopefully this new model is gaining ground and end customers can find naturally grown coffee without pesticides from concerned artisan roasters.

Boldjava wrote:When I distributed coffee, I surveyed those who bought coffee from me. Organic certification was important to about 5-7% of those who bought.

I'm guessing Blue Bottle might get different results from a similar survey.

You might well be right. Blue Bottle makes up a small percentage of parent company's Nestle's sales. Nestle's organics would be a pittance.