Equilibrium/Sustainability — Birds and bees bring better morning brew

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Coffee beans grow bigger and better when the birds and the bees join forces to protect and pollinate coffee plants, a new study has found. 

Without the help of these expert fertilizers, coffee farmers would see a 25 percent drop in crop yields and a loss of about $1,066 per hectare ($432 per acre), according to the study, published on Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 

Not only does the study provide critical information to the $26 billion global coffee industry, but it is also the first to show that the contributions of nature to coffee farms are more robust when they are combined, rather than individual, the researchers found. 

“Nature is an…