Green coffee differs from milk, meat and eggs in that it only gets harvested once annually, meaning many small farms and coops cannot afford the premiums associated with becoming certified as organic – especially when large buyers like Starbucks don’t pay. If however, farmers maintain their coops well while producing coffee responsibly and focus on cup quality then their coffee may still qualify as pesticide-free despite lack of official certification – Ryan Flanagan describes this well in his article entitled ‘Organic Certification and Green Coffee”.(1).