An increasing number of coffee growers in Latin America are going green, abandoning chemical fertilizers and pesticides and growing their coffee in the shade of native trees that provide habitat for migrating songbirds. Several hundred small-scale coffee growers in southern Mexico recently formed a cooperative and adopted green growing methods after finding that they could get a higher price for eco-friendly beans. Conservation International helped establish the cooperative and is working with farmers to set up similar programs in Columbia, Peru, Guatemala, and other parts of Mexico. Starbucks has formed a partnership with Conservation International to buy green coffee, responding to increasing customer demand.
