One large organic shade-grown coffee, please -- with extra bats

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A big-eared bat of the genus Micronycteris. Bats of this genus are found in Mexican coffee plantations where they glean insects from foliage and help limit pest populations. Credit: Merlin D. Tuttle Bat Conservation International
A big-eared bat of the genus Micronycteris. Bats of this genus are found in Mexican coffee plantations, where they glean insects from foliage and help limit pest populations. Credit: Merlin D. Tuttle, Bat Conservation International

If you get a chance to sip some shade-grown Mexican organic coffee, please pause a moment to thank the bats that helped make it possible. At Mexican organic coffee plantations, where pesticides are banned, bats and birds work night and day to control insect pests that might otherwise munch the crop.


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