Made in the Shade

The breezy mountainsides of tropical Latin America, Africa, and Asia are some of the most beautiful, biodiverse places in the world, and they are also home to the world’s most delicious coffees. While coffee cultivation methods change across countries and cultures, the farms that produce great-tasting coffee tend to share common characteristics, among them: high altitude, heirloom coffee plant varietals, and proper harvesting of the ripest, sweetest coffee fruit. And as you might imagine, the most environmentally sustainable and socially responsible coffee farms worldwide also share common traits. Having direct relationships with coffee growers around the world and having spent time on their farms, we have found that great quality coffee and sustainable farming methods can – and usually do – go hand in hand!

Each of the three tenets of triple-bottom line sustainability – environmental, social, and fiscal – has an important role in sustainable coffee farming. The natural environments that produce the best quality coffee are vibrant ecosystems, with high canopies of life-supporting trees that shade coffee plants, slow their growth, and contribute to more complex flavors while protecting and nourishing the soil with rich organic material. The most conscientious coffee growers take pride in growing sustainable coffee because the quality of their coffee represents a strong commitment to their families, communities, and their heritage. And, real sustainability means that farmers get paid fairly, rewarding high quality with high prices. The varied geographic and cultural landscapes of coffee-growing countries around the world pose different challenges to growers and their farms. Two example coffees, one from Peru and the other from Guatemala, help illustrate some of the similarities and differences in sustainable coffee farming.

Valle del Santuario comes from 44 farms near the high Andean town of San Ignacio in northern Peru. Coffee grows in the transitional zone of a national nature preserve (the sanctuary of the coffee’s name) and the five communities of Valle del Santuario take pride in the biodiversity of this beautiful park and in their role as caretakers of this unique environment. Because farmers have only two to three acres of coffee, they depend on strong, democratic community associations for support. A good association will help build educational and social support systems within a community, provide loans for farmers in advance of the harvest, and in cases such as this one, provide for each farm’s organic certification. Organic certification holds numerous advantages for these small producers: an ecosystem not stressed by chemical pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers; a price premium from their buyer and a system of farm management that deepens each farmer’s commitment to his farm and farming environment. The certification applies to crops other than coffee, and some growers of Valle del Santuario have diversified into growing certified organic grenadilla – from the passion fruit family. Crop diversification is another indicator of farm sustainability and community stability, because farmers do not depend entirely on coffee for their living; if a frost kills their coffee plants or if they lose their buyer, these growers have another source of income.

The Recinos family has four generations of coffee-growing history in the mountains of Huehuetenango, Guatemala. Finca Nueva Armenia, at 280 acres, is small in the world-wide scheme of coffee farming but much larger than the farms of Valle del Santuario, and their size affords them some advantages in pursuing sustainability. This was one of the first farms in Guatemala to obtain organic certification and recognition for their shade, and over ten years the family has learned how to use ecologically responsible production methods to produce quality coffee at stable levels, which is an enormous challenge for small producers. Jorge Recinos expressed the commitment that he and his twin brother Javier feel to the natural world by noting, “Very few places exist where you can find the old forest, coffee, natural springs and wild animals that we have.” Likewise, by paying workers thirty percent more than average, Finca Nueva Armenia maintains the quality of their coffee picking and processing and receives high prices in return for their outstanding coffee.

While they may belong to different cultures and countries and they are very different in size, Valle del Santuario and Finca Nueva Armenia share much. They have in common a profound commitment to the environment, to community and to producing exceptional quality coffee.

At Counter Culture Coffee we search the world for farms like these. We treasure the relationships we enjoy with these and many other talented growers. And we believe it is our responsibility to share their stories as well as the great coffee they produce.

Kim Elena Bullock is Sustainability & Producer Relations Manager at Counter Culture Coffee