• April 17, 2007

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc. has engaged primatologist Jane Goodall to launch a new brand of coffee, "Gombe Reserve-In Cooperation with the Jane Goodall Institute."

The coffee is apparently grown by members of the Kalinzi Cooperative, a group of 2,700 small-scale farmers who live near Gombe National Park in Tanzania. The park is also where Goodall conducted research into primate behavior that won her worldwide acclaim.

The idea for the coffee, which will be on sale for a limited time at greenmountaincoffee.com/gombe, is that coffee beans grow well in the kinds of shaded forest environs that are also healthy for chimps. And shade-method coffee farming promotes forest preservation.

--Karl Greenberg