Half its coffee is grown in the Central Valley, where half the population resides and where most of the drinking water is drawn from two aquifers. Costa Rica has the world's highest incidence of gastric cancer, a disease that has been linked to the commercial pesticides and fertilizers used in coffee production. Costa Rican studies show that coffee plants there absorb only a third of the commercial nitrates applied to them, with most of the remainder flowing through the volcanic soils into the aquifers beneath. These significant differences in how coffee is grown extend to differences in processing, although the alignment is not perfect. Because they possess more capital, sometimes industrial firms rectify processing practices at the beneficio more effectively than smaller operations, once both are nudged by governments.
Traditional coffee is solar dried and sorted by hand.
Wastes may be recycled as fertilizer by incorporating other crop and animal wastes. Most industrial coffee still uses wood or petroleum to dry the bean and, unless regulated by the state, discharges wastes into rivers. Production, Profit, and Responsibility A quality cup of coffee, judged by taste, can be produced under either the traditional or industrial model, since flavor largely depends on factors beyond those discussed here, including plant genetics, field location, care in selecting beans, and roasting skills. It is also likely that a safe cup of coffee emerges from both systems. While residues of toxic chemicals have been found by the U.S. Department of Agriculture on unroasted beans arriving in the United States, it is unlikely that those residues survive the high temperatures of roasting.