Guest: Kevin Lardner, Senior Relationship Manager, LATAM & Coffee Trade
Based: Denver, CO
Online: www.rainforest-alliance.org
What they drink: A washed drip
Listen/Watch on: Spotify • YouTube
If I took one lesson away from Kevin Lardner’s journey from specialty coffee (Purple Llama, Intelligentsia) to the Rainforest Alliance, it is that awareness is essential. If the person(s) who are looking at or even buying green coffee at scale don’t see a certification, much less its value, that impact will never reach the individual consumer.
This gets us to the point of this Podcasthon-inspired episode: to draw attention to the value of the work being done at the Rainforest Alliance, the RA certification program, and to offer a modicum of understanding of what the frog on your coffee bag might mean.
Listen to the episode to learn more about how and why Kevin moved from inside specialty coffee to a perspective point that aims to improve specialty by improving the farming practices that sustain it.
RAINFOREST ALLIANCE
If you’re seeking out a Rainforest Alliance-certified coffee, it’s the cute frog below that you’re looking for. You’ll see the circular seal, sometimes combined with another certification, but always the frog, although not always green!
The certification’s sustainability focus leans on four pillars: Forests, Climate, Human Rights, and Livelihoods. They offer the certification, in part, to harness the economic demand of the consumer to show that people want (and need) a balance between farming and deforestation. The RA mission includes making responsible business the new normal ensuring a better future for all of us.
In the screenshot from the RA below you’ll see the primary seal as you’d see it on packaging today. It was introduced in 2020. Click the image to learn more about the various seals that you might still see in the market and what a company has to do to be able to represent their support for RA.
KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM THE POD
RA = Rainforest Alliance!
Kevin primarily works in certification for the trade side of the equation, meaning the companies sourcing RA-certified products like coffee. Certification can be achieved on the supply chain's farming and sourcing side.
In 2018, the Rainforest Alliance certification program was merged with UTZ, a farming sustainability certification program focused on coffee, cocoa, tea, and hazelnuts.
The Frog is an iconic logo!
Kevin comes from the Intelligentsia family tree. His work in sales and buying gave him a better insight into how he, as an individual and as a company representative, could impact direct trade. It also introduced him to what sustainability certifications could mean to create a responsible supply chain, even if they weren’t being used effectively to market the coffee.
The RA certification is a sustainability standard. The seal on the bag represents that the coffee was sustainably produced. An independent third party performs oversight (over a period of time) on the chain's farm and supply side, but farms or farm co-ops have historically been the primary recipients. The long-term auditing process is designed to ensure that the certification recipient is living up to its commitment to sustainability.
Cost of certifications is always a concern. Small farmers may not have the resources to subsidize the expense as individual entities. At RA, they sometimes see traders stepping up to cover costs, but more likely is the creation of a co-op of farms to band together to pay for the certification for their products. There isn’t a direct answer to the cost of certification. It will vary on the product, quantity, and expenses associated with the audits, which vary by location.
Why does the work of the RA matter? Because climate stability depends on rainforest ecosystems. Agriculture–including coffee farming–is a direct threat, as a changing climate shifts the coffee belt into new regions that are ripe for deforestation to accommodate planting. Our climate is impacted by the actions taking place on the other side of the world and vice versa.
Arabica is a particularly needy plant.
Maintaining optimism in the face of a climate emergency can be challenging. The Rainforest Alliance’s new video aims to inspire resilience.
DEFINED: Agroforestry is a land-use methodology that incorporates a diversity of crops, trees, animals, and farm use onto a piece of land in an effort to create a more sustainable, healthy, and profitable piece of land.
From the USDA:
“Agroforestry combines agriculture and forestry technologies to create more integrated, diverse, productive, profitable, healthy and sustainable land-use systems. Practices are focused on meeting the economic, environmental and social needs of people on their private lands. The forestry profession encompasses the science and practice of establishing, managing, using, and conserving forests, trees and associated resources in a sustainable manner to meet desired goals, needs, and values.”DEFINED: Cover cropping is the use of a secondary crop or plant to (literally) cover farmland between harvests of the main crop. The purpose is to protect and regenerate the soil instead of leaving it bare. The cover crop can aid in preventing erosion, strategically adding nutrients to the ground, preventing pests, and much more.
There are a lot of companies that attained certification status. Find the frog!
PODCASTHON:
We’re participating, or at least trying to participate in Podcasthon, a global charity awareness podcasting event. More than 1,500 podcasters dedicated episodes to charities they support. We chose POW and the Rainforest Alliance.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Ryan Laemel, Protect Our Winters
Guest: Ryan Laemel, COO of Protect Our Winters joins the podcast to share the vision for Team POW, as they seek to be the voice of the outdoor recreation community.
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BRANDS WE USE & HAVE PARTNERED WITH*
The links below enable us to generate some affiliate revenue. As always, we don’t partner with brands we don’t use, coffee we don’t drink, or strongly recommend.
We upgraded our Simply Good Coffee Brewer to the newest edition featuring the thermal brewing pot. We’re excited to try it and update our review. Stay tuned.
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