Certifications

Canada now has its own certified organic standards and seal.

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Revised on February 8, 2013

What does “certified organic” mean when it comes to coffee? What chemicals are allowed?

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Revised on March 14, 2013

From my accounts of previous trips, readers know I have a soft spot for Nicaragua. So I’m happy to report that the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center has now has three [...]

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Revised on September 23, 2011

Sips: Fair Trade debate

July 16, 2011

There are so many great voices in the fair/Fair trade movement, I keep out of it aside from environmental aspects of certification and occasional links. Here are a few of [...]

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Revised on February 8, 2013

Share it or spare it?

June 21, 2011

Intensifying production while conserving biodiversity Food security and the ability of agricultural lands to feed over 9 billion people by 2050 is an increasingly-discussed topic. Part of this issue is [...]

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Revised on February 8, 2013

Latest update 13 April 2013 When sales and market shares of various certified coffees come out, I try to put them together in a post. Each certification scheme tends to [...]

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Revised on April 13, 2013

Rainforest Alliance will require companies that use less than 100% certified beans in their coffees to increase that amount by a set percent each year until they reach 100%.

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Revised on February 8, 2013

As promised in the last post, here are the winners of the Rainforest Alliance Cupping for Quality awards from the April 2011 cuppings, which covers countries in Latin America, Ethiopia, [...]

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Revised on February 8, 2013

The Rainforest Alliance Cupping for Quality award breakfast at the Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) annual trade show is always the first function we attend each year at this [...]

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Revised on February 8, 2013

Introduction Third-party certifications are great aids to consumers who want to know their coffee was produced under specific standards. Coffee produced under various certification schemes is still a pretty small [...]

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Revised on February 10, 2013

Big kerfluffle, well explained in the following posts; make sure to read the comments. My thoughts on how this relates to other certifications follow. To tell the truth: who owns [...]

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Report on how much certified, sustainably-grown coffee was produced and sold worldwide in 2008, broken down by major buyer. As it turns out Starbucks buys nearly twice as much verifiable, sustainably-grown coffee than the four largest coffee buyers in the world combined.

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Revised on February 8, 2013

Report on how much certified, sustainably-grown coffee was produced and sold worldwide in 2009, broken down by certification.

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Revised on January 6, 2013

Review: PT’s Kenya Kia Ora

November 22, 2010

Organic coffee from Kenya accounts for less than 1% of exports. Here’s a review of one of the first widely available offerings, from a surprising source.

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Revised on February 8, 2013

For the past several years, I’ve covered the Rainforest Alliance (RA) Cupping for Quality awards, a competition for RA-certified farms. In its first year, 2003, eight countries submitted 40 coffees [...]

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Revised on November 30, 2012