Organic coffee is great coffee. It is almost always arabica and free of more than a hundred potential contaminants that can be found in non-organic coffees. As a rule the best way to know that your coffee is organic is to look for the USDA Organic label on the package. However, there are organic coffee scams and other false representations in the organic food and beverage world. The USDA has a long list of fraudulent organic certificates that it regularly updates. The image accompanying this article is one of them from a few years ago.

What Is USDA Certification?

In order to be certified as organic coffee by the USDA, a coffee farm or production facility needs to be inspected and then routinely reinspected in order to obtain and maintain certification. Crop standard for USDA certification include the following:

• Three years of having no prohibited substances applied to it.
• Maintenance of soil fertility and crop nutrition via crop rotations, cultivation practices, tillage, cover crop and crop or animal waste materials with only allowed synthetic materials.
• Management of diseases, pests, and weed via biological, mechanical, and physical controls instead of chemicals whenever possible. When necessary synthetic, botanical, and biological methods are allowed but only from a list provided by the USDA.
• Planting stock must be organic and any use of ionizing radiation, genetic engineering, or sewage sludge is prohibited.

Why Is Honest Organic Coffee Certification Important?

There are three issues here. If you want organic coffee you not only want great coffee taste and aroma but you want it without a long list of potential impurities that can be found in regular coffee. And organic coffee drinkers typically want the coffee they drink to have been produced without damaging the environment, water table, bird life, or the lives and safety of those working on coffee farms. Thus the two first issues are coffee quality and environmental concerns. The third is the cost of the coffee. Organic coffee is more expensive than other coffee. It costs more to produce all the way from the coffee farm through processing, storage, and shipping. Organic coffee is similar to gourmet coffee in this regard. Because of the cost and trouble of growing and processing organic coffee nobody bothers with low quality coffee. Thus, organic coffee drinkers are getting better coffee that is environmentally friendly and ultra-pure. Nobody wants to be paying organic prices and then getting an inferior product that ends up hurting the environment.

Fraudulent Organic Certifications

Despite all of the effort put into certifying organic foods and beverages, including organic coffee, there are fraudulent organic certifications that amount to organic coffee scams. The image below of a fraudulent certificate from a few years ago is just one example published by the USDA.

If you wonder about whether the USDA certification of your organic coffee is valid you can check with the USDA. You can also rely on established coffee suppliers such as those who have sold coffee from Colombia with the Juan Valdez trademark as well. For quality coffee from Colombia, organic or not, contact us at admin@buyorganiccoffee.org today.