Why Organic Coffee Is Important
No junk in our coffee!
That was the rallying cry to get us through our first organic coffee certification from the USDA. I was raised with a healthy dose of American skepticism so voluntarily welcoming in 3rd party inspectors to go through every inch of our facility, our invoices, our procedures (and paying them to do so) isn’t something I’m naturally inclined to do. On the other hand, I understood that our transparency to track every bean through the supply chain to the very ground it sprung from says a lot about what we do here at Tend Coffee.
Organic is more than a growing standard, it’s also a chain of custody. From the soil the coffee was grown, origin processing, transportation to export, oversees shipping, importing, transporting to processing, handling, storage, roasting and packaging and more, there is a lot of room for things to go wrong. Every step has organic handling procedures. A big one for me is the shipping containers are hand sorted rather than fumigated when coming into the country.
Bottom line, we know too little about where our food comes from here in the States, never mind in other countries. Since the majority of Arabica coffee is grown in the equatorial belt, it’s nice to have some folks on our team at origin working to the same standard and care that is Certified Organic.
For the growing regions, research shows that organic farming practices can:
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Improve water quality
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Conserve energy
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Increase biodiversity
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Contribute to soil health
The benefits to the farmers and there families are numerous also:
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Receive premium prices for their products
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Access fast-growing local, regional, and international markets
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Support local economies
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Access additional funding and technical assistance
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Market products to consumers
For Coffee Roasters & Communities
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None of that stuff that supposedly burns off in the roasting process ever touches our equipment or community.
For Coffee Drinkers
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If not having chemicals, pesticides, shady handling practices and other shenanigans that are sorted out by Organic Certifying agencies in your brew is important to you; drink Certified Organic. It’s that simple.