STiR coffee and tea magazine

STiR coffee and tea 31 Trustworthy advising ... Use our knowledge to your benefit. With our outstanding experience in tea buying and blend development, we offer you high-quality teas, sophisticated formulations and latest tea innovations. Independently. Personally. Since 1992. Get an impression of us: www.kktee.de Healthy, nutrient rich soil is a key component of regenerative farming. Photo courtesy Rodale Institute is key," says Whitlow. "We have labor shortages happening around the world, and people migrating in to fill these huge gaps. We have crops here in California that don't get harvested and go to complete waste because we don't have the labor to harvest it." The ROC seal ensures consumers that every aspect of producing these specialty products has been inspected and guarantees the highest standards have been met. What's the Process to Obtain Certification? While ROC farms are varied—coffee, tea, fiber, dairy, beef, eggs, etc.—there are some basic tenets of the model that all farms follow. Mark Inman, director and senior trader at Covoya Specialty Coffee, an early adopt- er and supporter of ROC, explains, "Step one, the farm needs to be certified organic." ROA recognizes 14 different certifications around the world. "Secondly, there must be conditions for fair pricing. So, in coffee, that's going to be certified through Fair Trade US, Fair Trade International, or a Fair-Trade equiva- lency." Then, farmers must show their carbon capture levels through tree and biodi- versity counts. If there are animals on the farm, it must be proved they receive ethical treat- ment. Whitlow adds that social audits are also part of the certification. "Our pro- gram really fills in that gap and protects workers." ROA now allows any certifier who is approved to do the certification and trained in social audits to audit for social fairness. "If you're a farmer in the global north, you don't have to carry the additional cer- tification for social fairness," says Whit- low. "You can get it through the ROC program, and that's by design. We're go- ing to continue to build that. We're not ready to do it in the global south yet be- cause it's still a small and growing team, but we're growing rapidly." She says that the board is doing some strategic plan- ning and visioning for the future to map out a way to amplify ROC's impact. "The coming year is going to be a really pivotal year for us. There's going to be a lot of restructuring and growing." "And then, there's this carbon-neutral element," says Inman. This shows the car- bon capture and regeneration of the farm. "Where people get stuck on that in cof- fee and tea farming, like in Brazil, is a lot of the coffee trees are planted in hedges." Between those rows is usually cleared dirt as tractors are driving through them and harvesting mechanically. For this certifi- cation, farmers must plant ground cover to hit their carbon numbers. This no-till farming allows for significant plant mate- rial on the ground and begs for hand har- vesting of coffee or tea. The soil remains undisturbed, and farmers try not to till the farm or weed between rows.

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