By Kale Roberts Mother Earth News October 18, 2012 Photo: Andrew Oakes via Mother Earth News Organic and fairly traded, shade grown and locally sourced— the list of factors to consider as we peruse the coffee aisle at the grocery store can be lengthy. But how many of us have thought about the pollution and energy consumption contributed once those exotic beans have left their home country and reached the roaster? “The dirty secret of the coffee roasting business is that coffee roasting is a dirty business,” says Duncan Elcombe, Sales Director for Loring Smart Roaster , a company pioneering super-efficient coffee roasting. “When coffee beans are roasted they go through a series of endothermic (absorbing heat) and exothermic (emitting heat) stages. Eventually they start to emit large amounts of smoke and volatile compounds. In some parts of the country this smoke can just be pumped into the atmosphere.” This is not to mention the enormous energy...