Going Green with Coffee Beans

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There are two options when it comes to buying coffee; ground coffee or whole coffee beans. How they are grown is another thing to consider though. We have the option to buy organic or processed in which pesticides are used. This is actually something worth really thinking about if you are a serious coffee drinker. The last time I bought ground coffee was last year and I raved the best I could get was the dark roast from Folgers. I had been considering organic coffee though for the past couple of years and was delighted that I can go to my favorite specialty organics store. Now, mind you, I'm sure that coffee drinkers everywhere enjoy the best coffee they can afford. Not everyone is willing after all to buy Starbucks every day at a whopping $4.00 USD for great tasting flavor. I was reading an article in the last 30 minutes from The Nature Conservancy regarding buying sustainable coffee and it really made me click in my mind if our favorite coffee we purchase at our regular grocery store whether they are sustainable or not. Whole coffee beans can't possibly be fully fresh in our stores. I wonder how far are the farms from my store that the coffee is sourcing from. Are those farms using pesticides or if they are organically grown? Everything that we consume is questionable and to me it matters how this is affecting the earth. Conservation of the planet is close to my heart and do my part to the best of my abilities. The further I read into the article it says to ensure that I am going green to make sure the beans are Fair Trade Certified. The reason stated is that it reduces the need of cutting down trees in national forests when workers are paid fairly in growing more beans. How delighted I was to read that shaded grown trees provide more robust and better tasting flavor because they grow slower. When I go to the store and pick out my beans of choice and grab one of those bags, you can't really discern this from what is written on them. It gives you the store's mission when choosing it's beans. That's it. Now my mission is to research the three grocery stores I go to if their coffee beans they sell is certified or not. How important is your coffee to you when you go to the store? Do you go out of your way to get organically grown beans? Is your coffee Fair Trade Certified?