In general environmentally friendly coffees are organic brands of coffee. Organic coffee is grown using sustainable agricultural practices. Environmentally friendly coffees are grown without resorting to herbicides, insecticides, fungicides or synthetic fertilizers. Drink healthy organic coffee and avoid the more than one hundred impurities that can be found in a cup of regular coffee. To be sure that you are buying environmentally friendly coffees look for a certification seal on the package. There are three that you can trust when looking for environmentally friendly coffees. These are the USDA seal of the United States Department of Agriculture, the UTZ seal of certification and the seal of the Rainforest Alliance.

USDA Certified Coffee

When coffee is certified organic by the USDA we know that sustainable agricultural practices were used and that the organic coffee is free of many of the pesticide, herbicide, and synthetic fertilizer residues that can be found in regular coffee products. However, USDA organic coffee certification has primarily to do with supporting sustainable agricultural practices while delivering a healthier cup of coffee to your breakfast table. But the USDA does not concern itself with an issue critical to the small organic coffee farmer, finding buyers for their organic crop.

UTZ Certified Coffee

The UTZ label tells you  that the bag of coffee comes from a coffee farm that employes sustainable agricultural practices, good environmental practices and efficient farm management. Environmentally friendly coffees with the UTZ label are traced from grower to roaster. UTZ certified coffee is sold in North America, Europe, and Japan, in nearly fifty nations. According to UTZ,

UTZ Certified stands for sustainable farming and better opportunities for farmers, their families and our planet. The UTZ program enables farmers to learn better farming methods, improve working conditions and take better care of their children and the environment. Through the UTZ-program farmers grow better crops, generate more income and create better opportunities while safeguarding the environment and securing the earth’s natural resources.

Rainforest Alliance Certified Coffee

The Rainforest Alliance is a non-governmental organization working to preserve biodiversity. It does so for agricultural products by influencing consumers to buy environmentally friendly coffees and other produce such as bananas, cocoa, oranges, cut flowers, ferns, and tea. Rainforest Alliance certified means that the coffee that you buy was produced using good land use practices. Certified coffee farms meet a strict set of environmental standards that include preservation of the ecosystem and reduction in use of synthetic chemicals of all sorts. Like UTZ, Rainforest Alliance helps small organic coffee growers find buyers for their environmentally friendly coffees.

Environmentally Friendly but Not Certified

There are, unfortunately, many small coffee farmers who abide by strictly organic sustainable practices in growing, harvesting, processing and storing their coffee and end up selling their product locally. This is because they cannot find buyers for their coffee. One of our goals at Buy Organic Coffee is to find buyers of wholesale organic coffee who are interested in connecting with small coffee farmers, especially in Colombia and Panama. If you are interested in organic coffee in small or large quantities and especially if you would like to work with us to connect small organic coffee growers to the wider market contact Buy Organic Coffee today.