As you have probably read on the side of our bag: Komuna helps to preserve the mexican rainforests, but how exactly?
Regenerative agriculture is a farming approach that works with natural ecosystems rather than replacing them. In coffee production, this means growing coffee trees in the middle of the jungle, surrounded by other trees, plants, and animals, not in cleared rows on open plantations.
Taller trees provide natural shade for the coffee plants. Insects and wildlife move freely through the space, naturally enriching the soil and maintaining its fertility. This biodiverse environment creates soil with more minerals, which translates to richer flavors in the coffee.
What about pesticides?
Coffee trees are subject to many pests such as the roya (hemileia vastratrix). Instead of spraying chemical products that would kill other insects along with the roya, farmers use other methods. For example, they hang open bottles with alcohol in the trees, these attract the roya, making it go into the bottles instead of the trees.
The labor behind regenerative coffee
Harvesting coffee in a jungle environment is considerably more labor-intensive than working in neat, organized rows. This means green coffee from regenerative farms typically costs around 5 times more than commodity coffee and roughly 3 times more than Fair Trade coffee.
What about organic certification?
Organic certification sets good but limited standards for commodity production. If you are shopping at a supermarket, it is your best bet. However, the certification process is too expensive for small-scale producers. The micro-producers that we work with practice farming methods that exceed organic standards but cannot afford the certification itself.
