You're looking at coffee beans drying in the sun. Coffee is a major export for countries throughout the tropics. Central and South America grow some of the best coffee on earth.
First grown in Africa, the people of South America realized that there was money to be made by growing and roasting coffee. In fact, coffee is one of major export crops of South America, and it's one of the easiest to grow. Coffee grows very easily, however, harvesting the beans takes a tremendous amount of time and labor.
Coffee with the best, and also the smallest environmental impact, is shade grown and organic. Coffee that is grown within an existing section of rainforest not only tastes better, but is easier to manage and has a greater yield than coffee that is grown in open fields, where the rainforest needs to be cut down.
Many types of birds use the coffee plants, which are short, stocky shrubs, as habitat. They then help spread the seeds of the coffee plants, thereby reducing the amount of work the farmer needs to do.
Coffee also just happens to be the most popular beverage in the United States and Canada. And it's also another product that we rely on with origins from the rainforest.
