REGENIFIED

What is Regenerative Coffee?

Regenerative agriculture is an approach to farming that, first and foremost, recognizes the imperative nature of a farm having healthy soil - the fundamental step for a functioning ecosystem to exist. As you will see further, it is, in fact, through a functioning ecosystem that the present and future of a farm can be both prosperous now as well as resilient to the unpredictability of the future, whether that be higher temperatures, less rainfall, or any other combination of change.

Not only is this beneficial for the farm and farmer, as it is predicted that more than 50% of the most suitable land for current coffee cultivation will be unavailable by 2050 due to rising temperatures of climate change, these changes done by farmers now have a great impact on the very future of your morning cup of coffee. Even further still, due to a healthy soil having a greater ability to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, regenerative agriculture practices both protect the farm doing the practice as well as help to protect the future of all farms and people by mitigating the strength and effects of climate change.

Examples of regenerative agricultural practices include growing a variety of plants amongst the main crop, minimizing soil disturbance through less-disruptive tilling if any, keeping plants growing in the soil year-round, incorporating animals into the farm system, and many more. Following practices like these, prioritizing improving soil health, a whole plethora of extremely positive side-effects follow… Follow us now on a quick journey detailing the inter-related benefits of working to create a healthy soil.

MORE THAN JUST ORGANIC

Why do we sell and push for regenerative over organic?

While USDA certified organic requires that no synthetic fertilizers nor pesticides be used in growing food, and this is definitely an earth-positive goal for a farmer, more often than not, this just leads to the farmer looking for another source of naturally-based chemical input that can be put on the farm to replace the effects of the previously-used synthetic chemicals. As a result, the farmer still has the same problems that were being addressed by the synthetic chemicals: there are no actual improvements to the ecosystem of the farm; there is still an imbalance on the farm that requires external input.

This is one of the main ways where regenerative agriculture is different… and, we think, much more promising for this world. Regenerative agricultural practices are a “big-picture” approach to farming, relying on the strengths of a functioning ecosystem - high biodiversity, self-regulating nutrient amounts in the soil, resilience to extreme weather events, among others - to manage a farm in a way that allows for successful food cultivation now as well as far into the future. The practices done by regenerative farmers not only trust in these strengths but act to improve an ecosystem’s functionality to the point that many aspects of the farm are managing themselves.

Thus, this is where there is a main difference in organic and regenerative: regenerative doesn’t simply mean zero chemicals; instead, regenerative means that you have carried out agricultural practices that have proactively built up an ecosystem where there is little to no need for chemicals, or inputs, of any kind. It means that the farmer recognizes that the solutions to troubles on the farm also exist in nature; the solutions just need to be given a home on the farm to flourish. And to make matters even better, these improvements to convert a farm into a more functioning ecosystem naturally lead to higher soil intake of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, helping in the world’s struggle against climate change - as can be seen and better understood in the flow chart above.

In short, organic replaces synthetic chemicals with other inputs, treating the farm’s symptoms and not the root causes. Regenerative involves nature in the process of growing food, allowing for the natural interactions that exist within a healthy and functioning ecosystem to be the drivers in maintaining a farm’s (as well as farmer’s) prosperity and continued well-being. It is through these regenerative practices that a farm can become an effective global tool in mitigating climate change effects by reducing carbon dioxide in the air.

A CHANGE YOU CAN TASTE ONE COFFEE CUP AT A TIME

How do we incorporate regenerative farming in what we do?
What is Regenified?

For us at Buena Vida Specialty Coffee, the regenerative farms we work with are Regenified-certified. This is a certification for regenerative farms that ensures the farmer is actively carrying out practices that heal the soil, restoring ecosystems back to a high level of functionality, such as through building the land’s biodiversity, re-enabling the soil’s ability for self-regulation of nutrients, and creating more capacity for the ground to absorb both rainfall as well as carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. But not only this, being Regenified-certified means that the farmer has also created and committed to following a written plan of action for how to further improve these practices and continue them into the future.

With this certificate, we are able to identify the farmers who are working to be resilient in the face of change, actively support these farms, and work to motivate other farms into trying these practices. As of now, all of the Regenified-certified farms that we work with are certified as Tier 5, the highest possible certification of Regenified. This ensures that these farms are operating at the highest capacity for intentionally farming to restore the health of the soil and the strength of the ecosystem.

The detailed requirements to be Regenified-certified as well as the necessities to achieve each tier can be found here.