Drink Shade-Grown Coffee

The Arbor Day Foundation did the math for The Daily Green, and found that each cup of shade-grown coffee preserves more than two square feet of rain forest.

What is shade-grown coffee? It's coffee grown on plantations that preserve native rain forests, rather than on clear-cut open fields. To find it, look for Bird Friendly coffee (certified by the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center) or Rainforest Alliance-certified coffees.

Coffee isn't the only commodity grown in rain forests. While they can be harder to find, look for shade-grown and Rainforest Alliance-certified chocolates, fruits and teas, too.

Some of our favorite shade-grown coffee brands include:

• Arbor Day Foundation coffee ($6.95 for 10 oz.)
• Audubon Shade Grown Coffee ($8.99 for 12 oz., or $34 for a three-coffee sampler at amazon.com)
• Equal Exchange While not certified shade-grown, much of Equal Exchange's fair-trade coffees are grown on re-forested plantations previously denuded. ($9.75 for 12 oz. of Organic breakfast blend or many other coffee blends. Also available at amazon.com.)
• Birds & Beans ($19.25 for 32 oz.), which you can purchase through some local non-profits (like one of our favorites, the Mohonk Preserve) to share the purchase price with a worthy cause.

Search for more bird-friendly coffees, shade-grown coffees and Rainforest Alliance-certified coffees at amazon.com.

Related: More Shade-Grown Coffee Brands