While human diet is often composed of animal products, plant matter processed through an animal digestive tract does not often feature in the human diet. One interesting example of this human-animal-plant interaction is in the Kopi Luwak, a coffee made from beans processed through the digestive tract of a Palm civet, Paradoxurus hermaphrodites.  In Indonesia, the civets eat ripened coffee cherries, digest the fleshy fruit, and excrete the coffee bean.  The digestive process alters the protein content of the beans.  Beans are then collected, cleaned and brewed producing a coffee lower in acidity and body, according to certified coffee tasters.  Ecologically, the civet may have once had a significant role in coffee bean dispersal.  However, the economic demand for wild produced Kopi Luwak has likely disrupted any ecologically important relationship between Palm civets and coffee.

--Anna Greenlee