By Juliana Splendore In late summer of 2016, Emily Stone, the founder of Uncommon Cacao – an American supplier of specialty cacao beans to artisanal chocolate producers – travelled to Colombia for the first time to scout potential sustainable cacao producers. Her trip took her to two extreme corners of Colombia – the Sierra Nevada, […]
Jacob Olander First it was hamburgers, then chocolate and now guacamole. Tropical forests are being relentlessly sacrificed for our far-away indulgences. Avocado growers are trashing native pine and oak forests in Mexico. A boom in cocoa planting comes at the expense of tropical forests in West Africa and Peru. And beef is responsible […]
Read More… from Consuming deforestation: Where are your standards?
I used to be a barista. “Are your beans certified?”, people would ask as they waited on the counter and as I struggled with the latte art. “Yes,” I´d answer, pointing at the many seals attached to our coffee bean bags. There were three, but they differed depending on the batch: Fairtrade Labeling Organization […]
By Iván Ulchur Rota If you haven’t heard of the maya nut yet, pay attention: you’ve been missing out! Though not necessarily well known today, it is now slowly making way in the market. It’s got a lot going for it: gluten-free, nutrient-dense and zero-fat, with vitamins A, B, C and E, calcium, potassium, […]
We sat down to talk to Eliot Logan-Hines, Executive Director of the Runa Foundation. The Runa Foundation is a not-for-profit entity that works closely with its commercial partner, Runa LLC, to support communities and ecosystems in the Amazon by commercializing its one-of-a-kind products in a manner that adds value to and conserves the forest, as well […]
Read More… from After introducing Guayusa to the world, what’s next for Runa?
By Karina Bautista We want to share exciting good news: An inspiring palette of diverse sustainable initiatives in Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, Venezuela, Brazil, Ecuador, Colombia and Peru, reached out to Canopy Bridge in response to our call to find innovative approaches to sustainability in the region. From Maya and Brazil Nuts, to jungle […]
Read More… from Sustainability innovation in all Latin America: Our contest winners
Cutting out the middlemen and increasing local processing are commonly seen as the key to helping small producers capture more value and improve their incomes. Extracting oil instead of selling Brazil nuts, processing frozen fruit pulp instead of fresh fruit, making chocolate bars instead of cocoa beans – the finished product is clearly more […]
The holidays can bring a welcome change of pace, when we slow down and share time with friends and family. This sharing includes gifts which […]
This article was originally published on the CRS Coffeelands blog on October 23, 2015. In this piece, Jefferson Shriver describes how climate change is affecting coffee production, forcing many farmers to use other (often lower quality) coffee varieties, switch to non-coffee crops, or abandon agriculture altogether. […]
Read More… from Responding to the Climate Crisis through Crop Diversification
On a Saturday afternoon in late September in the Peruvian jungle town of Satipo, Jonatan Ayala Lombardi offers up a chocolate surprise. Jonatan is the general manager of the Satipo Cooperative, which sells hundreds of tons of cacao and coffee from its 620 farmer members from this frontier region where the Andes meld into the Amazon lowlands. […]
Read More… from Fine Cacao is Booming. Fine Cacao is Vanishing.
