BUILDING BETTER COFFEE COMMUNITIES
As consumers’ taste in coffees has evolved, so has their awareness of where and under what conditions their coffees are grown. Many certifications, alliances, and consumer groups now grade, study, and report on coffee culture. This issue of our newsletter highlights programs and organizations that strive to build better coffee communities by promoting economically viable agro-ecosystems, environmental stewardship, or producer prosperity.
Organic and Sustainable Coffee
The Rainforest Alliance is the best known non-governmental organization promoting sustainability. It focuses on the social, environmental, and economic sustainability of farm management, teaching farmers how to produce a premium, sustainable product and compete in the marketplace.
Boyd Coffee Company proudly offers the following sustainable certified coffees: Viaggio® Bucaramanga, Boyds Coffee® Café Rojas® regular and decaffeinated, and Coffee House Roasters® High Mountain Organic. When you purchase Organic and Rainforest Alliance certified Coffees, you join us as conscientious stewards.
Fair Trade Coffee
The mission of the Fair Trade Coffee Certification program is to help ensure equitable trading arrangements for disadvantaged farmers, who are organized into cooperatives. Recently, Fair Trade Certification has come under scrutiny, with questions about the co-ops’ disbursement of funds, but the basic goal of assisting the farmer remains.
Shade-Grown Coffee
The Northwest Shade Coffee Campaign aims “to protect habitat for wintering neo-tropical migratory birds in Latin America and the Caribbean by increasing consumer demand for shade-grown Coffee.” Greater demand for shade-grown Coffee means more incentive for farmers to replant shade trees and preserve bird habitat.
- Boyd Coffee Company—the first U.S. company to have an organically certified roasting facility—provides its customers with coffee that is grown using environmentally sound practices. Not only does a sustainably grown coffee treat the earth and its people better—it also produces higher-quality coffee.
For more information on this topic, visit our web page at:
www.boyds.com/coffee/sustainability
Socially Responsible Organizations in the Coffee Community
Improving Trade Practices
The Coffee Community Association (4C Association), founded in 2006, aims at increased efficiency, profitability, and transparency in coffee production, securing long-term benefits to consumers as well as coffee producers and workers. The Common Code of the 4C Association is defined on its website as a “global code of conduct aiming at social, environmental and economic sustainability in the mainstream coffee sector.”
In 1997, Guatemalan coffee producers, in concert with the Dutch coffee roaster Ahold Coffee Company, created UTZ CERTIFIED “Good Inside”; the organization’s website describes its mission “to create recognition for responsible coffee producers and tools for roasters and brands to respond to a growing demand for assurance of responsibly produced coffee.”
Improving the Social Conditions of Coffee Workers
Coffee Kids is an international nonprofit organization established to improve the quality of life for children and families who live in Coffee-growing communities around the world.
The mission of Oromia Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union (OCFCU) is to make small Coffee producers in Ethiopia economically self-suffi cient and food-secure through a privately owned and democratically controlled Coffee producer’s cooperative union.
Grounds for Health works to increase the availability of health care services, especially early cervical cancer detection, to Coffee-growing communities in Central America and Mexico.
Promoting excellence in the coffee community
The Q Coffee trademark is increasingly recognized by the industry and consumers as a mark of quality and social responsibility. Boyd Coffee Company is pleased to include Q Coffee in its portfolio of coffees available for purchase.
CONTACTS
For more information on organizations working to improve the coffee community, visit these websites:
Rainforest Alliance www.rainforest-alliance.org
Coffee Kids www.coffeekids.org
Grounds for Health www.groundsforhealth.org
Northwest Shade Coffee Campaign www.shadecoffee.org/shade-coffee
Coffee Community Association (4C Assoc.) www.sustainable-coffee.net
Oromia Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union (OCFCU) www.greendevelopment.nl/progreso/ocfcu
UTZ CERTIFIED www.utzcertified.org
National Organic Program www.ota.com/standards/nop
NEXT MONTH’S TOPIC: The History of Coffee in the United States
|
||||
