Coffee is considered self pollinating, however, field observations and studies have shown that bees increase cherry set. This interaction is well known.
But, in Hawaii, our coffee is pollinated by NON KILLER bees. So I still find it upsetting to have another introduced species take over a "native" population of animals.
On the other hand, this is making lemon meringue out of lemons. Im glad the killer bees are helping the coffee farmers outside of the US.
Now, if we can get the millions of metric tons of junk, conventional, trash coffee off the world market maybe there would be a little room for the ecologically raised coffee.
Consumers need to know more about coffee and just how poor the general quality is and the pain it takes to raise it under conventional conditions.
Oddly, coffee is by far the largest, and most political, organic crop in the world...by far.
It would help if somehow about 5 cents per cup could be recycled back to the coffee farmers of south America for schools, medicine and education for their children.
