Kona Coffee is only produced along a narrow corridor on the west coastal slopes of Mauna Loa and Hualalai on the Big Island of Hawaii. This location has a climate that is ideally suited to the cultivation of coffee (Coffea Arabica) which is thought by many, to be one of the most sought after coffee beans in the world. With such a small growing area, Kona coffee is produced by approximately 800 farms, averaging 5 acres apiece, allowing for a multitude of choices for the consumer.

This leads us to the subject of utilizing organic methods and practices in the production of this limited commodity. Organic coffee recently has increased in popularity, due to many contributing factors, chief among these are synthetic fertilizers, herbicides and GMO (Genetically Modified Foods) among other health concerns. Many of the farmers in Kona have opted to farm organically, choosing several certification agencies to oversee their methods and practices to assure the customer of organic purity. Using these methods and practices does reduce the quantities of this coffee, as commercially available fertilizers exponentially increase crop yield dramatically. This in turn, further limits the supply of an already small output of this precious delicacy, known as Kona coffee.

Some of these certification agencies do allow the use herbicides, such as Round-Up, used to eradicate weeds around the coffee fields, timed to allegedly dissipate before the fruit production. However, most organic Kona coffee farmers have opted to use biological controls, such as manual removal, ruminants and fowl to regulate unwanted plants between their coffee trees. Read the rest of this entry »