Quest to Increase Yields by Growing ‘Sun Coffee’ Fuels Jungle Fires

The fires that rage through Mexico’s forests are not all set by peasants trying to expand their meager corn crops.

With coffee prices surging and the government eager to boost exports, a chemical-intensive method of growing coffee in full sunlight also is contributing to deforestation.

Historically, coffee here has been grown in small forest plots under the shade of many types of trees. But as Mexico competes with Colombia to become the world’s second-largest producer, behind Brazil, government agronomists and chemical companies are pushing “technified” coffee.

Although the technique often yields lower-quality coffee than plants grown organically in shaded plots, the combination of chemicals and sun can triple production.

The consequences can be devastating for wildlife, especially migratory birds, according to the Smithsonian Institution’s Migratory Bird Center, which estimates that 40% of the 6.5 million acres devoted to coffee in Central America has been converted to full-sun cultivation.

In the Mexican states of Oaxaca, Chiapas and Veracruz, researchers have seen a drop in the population of birds that flock to Inga trees and other hardwoods that slow-growing shade coffee thrives under.

Studies in Colombia and Mexico found 50% to 90% fewer birds--among them the orange and black Baltimore oriole--on sun-coffee farms where surrounding forests had been cut back. Coffee beans grow on trees, but ones that are short and shrublike--and do not attract many birds.

Some influential growers scorn the trend. One is 93-year-old Manuel Sedas, the head of an 1,800-member Cruxtitla coffee growing cooperative here.

“Forty years ago, Mexico made the best coffee in the world,” said Sedas, known as “El Profesor” to colleagues. “But we are becoming seduced by science, and science values quantity over quality.

“First came the chemicals. Now, this sun coffee,” he said, gesturing at the nearby hills where smoke from several fires indicated that farmers were readying their land for full-sun cultivation.

“I would not want to go to my farm if I could not hear the songs of the birds in the morning.”