Few Americans consider the environmental impact of their coffee habit, but the increasing popularity at home and abroad of this most mundane of consumer goods is causing major environmental, economic and social turmoil in the countries of Northern Latin America where it serves as a major cash crop.

Over the past two decades, dramatic changes in coffee production techniques have led to significant biodiversity loss, habitat fragmentation, pesticide poisoning and soil erosion. According to a 1996 report released by the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center, an industrial transformation of the coffee sector from Colombia to Mexico threatens the traditional agro-eco system which had been functioning sustainably for more than a century.

The most notable change is the shift from shade coffee to sun coffee. Traditionally, coffee grows best under dappled sunlight conditions under a canopy of foliage provided by a variety of plants. As coffee developed into a major cash crop in the 20^th century, the northern Latin American countryside became dotted with small scale shade coffee farms which served as habitat for many species of wildlife, especially migratory birds. However, in the last two decades much of the shade grown coffee has been squeezed out by the mechanized-based monoculture operation. This produces coffee plants which thrive in direct sunlight, significantly cutting into the migratory bird habitat and leading to increased erosion of soil that has been polluted by escalating fertilizer use. Of the 6.9 million acres planted with coffee in Mexico, Colombia, Central America and the Caribbean throughout the early 1990's, between 30% and 40 % have been converted to "sun" coffee.

The security of lands and the livelihood of small producers are being effected by the transformation of more intensified production. In response, a growing number of small producers, marketers and consumers have taken action to encourage more sustainable and environmentally sound methods of coffee production by requiring a minimum of shade cover from members.

Also, environmentalists in the US and elsewhere have introduced marketing strategies based on organic coffee, social justice, and the payment of fair commodity prices to small producers in Latin America. As a result, consumers can now choose among a variety of systems, yet information about these choices has been slow to spread through the US and other coffee importing nations.

The fight to create incentives for sustainable and environmentally sensitive coffee production is being joined by concerned American organizations such as the NRDC, the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center, Conservation International and the Rain Forest Alliance. Tactics include the development of environmental labeling criteria as well as the creation of strategic alliance with coffee roasters, retailers and trading companies. By educating consumers as to how their purchasing decisions affect regional and global economics and ecosystems, these organizations hope to use coffee as a tool to raise awareness of the dangers of unsustainable agriculture throughout the developing world.