Green Coffee Farms

For more than 150 years, coffee farms were virtually indistinguishable from the surrounding forest. They supported wildlife, migratory birds and a rich coffee-growing heritage. During the 1970’s with the introduction of a new hybrid coffee plant that required the application of chemicals and exposure to full sun, many farmers cut down their forests and abandoned their coffee-growing traditions.

This technified approach to farming has been environmentally devastating for farmlands.

Wildlife has disappeared, soils and agrochemicals have washed into streams and once-lush coffee farms have become bleak monocultures.

But it doesn’t have to be that way.

On Rainforest Alliance Certified™ farms coffee grows in harmony with nature. Soils are protected, waterways run clean, trash is reduced and recycled, wildlife and migratory bird habitat is protected, and carbon gases are sequestered. Perhaps most importantly, farm workers and their families learn the importance of protecting their natural resources and are given the tools and incentives to do so.