Organic

Growing certified organic coffee is serious business, and much more difficult than most of us realize: in addition to renouncing all synthetic chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides, certified organic farmers must comply with stringent standards that regulate the methods, practices, and substances they use one their farms. Organic farmers manage their entire ecosystems as much as they manage a single crop because biodiversity and soil biology are crucial to create healthy conditions for agriculture.

We believe that organic farming, when practiced by quality-driven growers, is a more sustainable way of growing coffee. Seventy percent of the coffee that Counter Culture purchases is certified organic, and we are constantly working to increase that percentage. We are proud to support a diverse array of certified organic farmers and that our longest relationships are with certified organic farms and co-ops. We recognize that our commitment to sustainable agriculture includes supporting farmers in transition to organic and farmers who are not certified because we know that sustainability is a process and that we are all working in it together.

To learn more about organic certification and rules:

www.ifoam.org
www.ota.com
www.ams.usda.gov/nosb/
www.qcsinfo.org/ (Quality Certification Services (QCS) is Counter Culture’s Organic certifier)