STiR coffee and tea magazine

30 STiR coffee and tea | 2024 Issue 4 (August / September) A By Diane Faulkner t the center of the specialty coffee and tea conversation continues to be the question of how to, first, agree on which initiatives are needed to ensure we have long-term sustainability as an industry and second, how to monitor these initiatives. This far down the line, certain basic principles are accepted as essential when looking at better practices at a farm and roastery level. Along the way, certifica- tions have sprung up to formalize the audit and promotion process. Some are more well-known than others, and each certification has a different level of consumer awareness and desirability. Shade-grown coffees were intensely desirable to consumers at one point, while many specialty professionals dismissed the certifica- tion. However, with the advent of EUDR requirements and the increased focus on deforestation as a driver for climate change, shade and intercropping have come back around as an important principle of sustainable agriculture. For the last few years, a new certification has been gaining traction around the world, and it is currently at a pivotal point of growth. It is built on the foundation of many past certifications and ups the ante by lowering a farm's carbon footprint, making the certification holders a big part of the solution to climate change. And it promises to be a sought-after seal. Who's the New Kid on the Block? Regenerative Organic Certification—or ROC—is a global farm-based, brand-driven program for beverages, food, textiles, personal body care ingredients, and even pet food. "Products made with crops from ROC farms are really meeting the highest stan- dard in the world for agriculture," says Elizabeth Whitlow, executive director of Regen- Regenerative Organic Certification Brings New Focus to Sustainability erative Organic Alliance (ROA). Group oversees the program and issues the seal, examining crops and products through the lens of the program's three pillars: soil health, animal welfare, and social fair- ness for farmers and their workers. Whitlow explains that the program builds on the baseline of organic certi- fication, then adds in the three layers of criteria. ROC program's goals are to pro- mote healthy agricultural practices so that farmers can increase organic soil matter and sequester carbon through this en- compassing and holistic approach. "If you build the health of the soil," says Whitlow, "you sequester far more carbon than you can even fathom." And this approach to farming, as the certifica- tion numbers show, is proven to clamp down on carbon emissions. Another part of the program is to en- sure the ethical and humane treatment of animals. Many meat and dairy consumers are unaware of the inhumane conditions happening around the world. "We've moved toward very factory- like models of keeping livestock pigs and gestation crates and cattle on confined animal feed lots," Whitlow explains. "There are all kinds of negative effects that come from that kind of factory farm- ing. They affect the animals in a way that is incredibly inhumane but also negatively affects our own health and the ecology immediately surrounding the farms and their communities." The other part of the program focus- es on labor. "Having fair labor and fair working conditions for the farm workers To achieve regenerative certification, farmers must allow a diverse range of plants to grow between rows and surrounding their fields. | Photo courtesy Dr. Bronner's The Regenerative Organic Alliance oversees the regenerative certification process. Farms and producers who comply with the ROA's strict requirements can add the ROA seal to their products and websites.

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