| Our non-profit business begins with the small coffee farmers who tend their
crops in Africa, Asia, and Latin and South America, producing niche coffees
with characteristics as distinctive and extraordinary as their local
ecology. In contrast to these exceptional coffees from small farmers
catering to specialty markets, mass market coffee focuses on uniformity and
low cost. The demand by large scale coffee producers for uniform beans
undermines the market for specialty coffees and thus the ability of small
farmers to stay in business and maintain the genetic diversity in the
world's store of coffee. Some coffee varieties have become extinct and
others are in danger of becoming so.
Green Beanery promotes the niche coffees in smaller coffee producing areas
in two ways. First, we encourage neighborhood-based micro-roasting in small
coffee shops and local roasteries. Second, we encourage roasting right in
the home using a variety of easy-to-use, home roasting machines.
Small-scale, freshly roasted coffee, whether produced in your neighborhood
or your home, supports small farmers, allowing them to keep planting
traditional varieties rather than forcing them to shift to mass market
crops. No less important, freshly roasted beans produce incomparably
superior coffee - beans begin to lose their flavor within hours of roasting
and they become stale in a matter of weeks. The environment also wins:
Creating niche markets for little known coffee bean varieties helps to
maintain the world's store of genetic diversity.
Green Beanery supports the environment and sustainable development through
policies designed to empower small farmers and local economies. All earnings
from Green Beanery's operations support the work of Probe International, a
federally registered Canadian charity that works with citizen's groups around
the world to protect their lands and their livelihoods
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