Interview with Daniel Katz: “King of the Eco Warriors”

At the age of 24, Daniel Katz co-founded the Rainforest Alliance. Twenty-five years later, he reflects on the organization’s past, future, struggles and achievements.  

This piece has been shortened and reprinted with permission from the  Urban Times.

What inspired you to found the Rainforest Alliance in 1986?

I didn’t actually aspire to start an organization; I only wanted to help out. I learned about the deforestation taking place in tropical forests while in college and remember saying, corny as it sounds, that if there was ever a way I could help give a voice to the people, plants and animals of the rainforest, I would do so. Some twenty-six years later, I’m still at it. Sadly, I can’t say: mission accomplished.

What are you most proud of?

I’m most proud that the Rainforest Alliance continues to work with integrity. It’s not immediately obvious on a website or webinar, but inside the organization, the senior leaders of the organization are keenly aware that the issues come first, not the ego. We know that we can’t compromise the organization’s principles and that we need to do our very best to walk our talk. Yes, it’s true that nothing is ever absolutely perfect. But the Rainforest Alliance really does try to pair the long view with the detailed one: we focus on every single farm and every single family as if they were the most important.

We also place far more emphasis and money in the areas where we work than on convincing others with media campaigns. I’m proud that our hearts and minds are still in the right place.

What do you say to people who accuse Rainforest Alliance of “green washing”?

I’ve never had anyone accuse me of “green washing.” I have tracked green washing in the United States for years, and seen when little to no effort is taken by a company to “go green” while expending great resources to tout its grand environmental claims. When we work with companies, we do so with eyes wide open and after all of these years, I think we are pretty good at knowing who is sincerely trying to help and who is not.

I’m also an optimistic believer that the world can be a better place and that we are all going to need to do better to get there, since according to the United States Supreme Court, even corporations are now considered “people.”  I have no problems at all engaging with companies that authentically want to make change for the better. The ones that are “phoning it in” almost always show their colors immediately. I guess we may always have detractors who say working with companies is plain wrong. I respect that opinion but disagree with it. We all need to be working on solutions, and as a believer in redemption, I think business can change for the better. Once it does, then we are all further along on the way to supporting a sustainable planet.

What do you say to people who criticize Rainforest Alliance because farmers are not necessarily encouraged to “go organic”?

We don’t tell farmers what to do. We don’t tell anyone what to do. Working with hundreds of folks from where ever we are, we collectively develop standards and criteria around best practices.

[Editor's note: On Rainforest Alliance Certified farms, the most dangerous pesticides are prohibited and all agrochemical use is strictly regulated. Farmers must use mechanical and biological pest controls where possible and strive to reduce both the toxicity and quantity of chemicals used. Many Rainforest Alliance Certified farms are also organic.]

How far does Rainforest Alliance differ from your original vision?

Because I didn’t actually set out to create an organization, I didn’t have a long-term organizational vision at the outset. I have always hoped that one day I could lock the office door and say, “we are done here, the forests and their inhabitants are all healthy, happy and safe.” I knew that was unrealistic but that was the plan. One constant has been certification: it was one of our original tools when we started working on forestry certification in 1988-1989 and, 25 years later, we are still using it to guide our conservation activities.

How would you define your leadership style?

My leadership style? I’m a collaborator, a builder, an entrepreneur. I prefer to work with those who are self-starters. But Tensie Whelan is now the president of the Rainforest Alliance and she is awesome! I ran the Rainforest Alliance for 14 years and am the board chair; in that capacity I do not have day-to-day responsibilities at the organization.

Who, in particular, are the worst culprits in the corporate world?

As Dr. Peter Raven, Director of the Missouri Botanical Garden, said at the Rainforest Alliance’s first international conference in 1987, the worst culprits are ignorance, poverty and greed.

What are the biggest obstacles we must overcome?

I think in order to be successful more of the organizations working on environmental issues need to drop the ego and the belief that they do the best work on the planet. No one organization is going to save the world.

We also have to stop measuring groups by budget and membership size and instead measure only by how well they/we are moving the lever toward sustainability. In the United States alone there are over 16,000 nonprofit groups working on environmental issues. I believe the days of the narrow vertical nonprofit are coming to an end and that we need more, much more, authentic collaboration. That means sharing a larger vision (even if we agree to disagree about specifics), a road map and following them until our goal is reached. Of course, the goal may change and the destination may evolve, but we all have to be able to envision the kind of world we want to live in. Most importantly, we have to know HOW we are going to get there. If we don’t get the HOW part of it, we’ll always be hoping against hope to create a world we don’t know how to build.

Tell us your favorite Rainforest Alliance related story.

My favorite Rainforest Alliance story? No one has ever asked me that! Back in 1987 we worked with seven radio stations across the country on a 12-hour radiothon to raise money for conservation. We raised nearly $400,000 through thousands of small donations and during those 12 hours almost every major rock band either came on live, called in or sent of a message of support. It was super cool!

Some believe that no matter what we do, we will lose a large amount of the ecosystems and biodiversity of our planet. What do you say to them?

There is no doubt that we are losing nature every single second of every day.  We have lost so much already. But our goal is still to hold the fort for future generations, for those who are growing up so much more environmentally-minded than us. We are still blessed with our amazing blue planet that feeds us every day–and I think there is still time to build a dreamy, sustainable Earth that feeds and shelters everyone. So where does that leave us? Stop wasting our time with folks who either don’t believe or don’t care. Start spending our time building a new collaborative force with a strong vision and bold, practical and realistic steps for achieving that vision.

What is the number one reason we should be optimistic?

The number one reason we should be optimistic is the younger generation. I think they will combine the benefits of new technology with old-school elbow grease and make this planet a whole lot better.  I’m certain of it.

The original version of this interview, conducted by Alex Phillips, appeared on Urban Times. 

The Champagne of Teas

Maya Albanese, sustainable agriculture associate, in a Darjeeling factory.

Back from a trip to India, Rainforest Alliance sustainable agriculture associate Maya Albanese writes…

The mighty snow-capped Himalayas provide an awe-inspiring backdrop to the bright green slopes of Darjeeling, blanketed with rows upon rows of meticulously pruned tea bushes. Here, women in colorful clothes scale the slopes carrying woven baskets overflowing with bountiful autumnal harvests.  Located at the northernmost tip of the state of West Bengal, the Golden Valley of Darjeeling is famous for its high-quality, high-altitude orthodox teas. With just 80 gardens planted in Darjeeling, the harvest is small and special in comparison to other tea growing regions of the world. Production of this “champagne of teas” is high cost and low output, and it commands a premium price on the international market.

Journey to Tumsong

In November of 2012, I had the pleasure of staying on Tumsong Tea Estate, a Rainforest Alliance Certified™ tea garden approximately 5,000 feet above sea level in Darjeeling. Tumsong was planted in 1867 around a temple dedicated to the Hindu goddess Tamsa Devi, who is worshipped by the indigenous people of the Golden Valley.  It is said that when you drink the delicate brew of Tumsong — known as “the garden of happy hearts” — you receive the blessing of the goddess herself.

I arrived in Tumsong by plane from Bagdogra airport followed by three hours on a precarious, winding road. As I traveled closer to the heart of Darjeeling, the lines

The Tumsong Tea Estate.

on the faces of the people around me changed dramatically. The majority of the local population is Gorkha (of ethnic Nepali background), and the tea pluckers are almost exclusively Nepali women. You will often see the word “Gorkhaland” above signs in Darjeeling, representative of the desire of some locals to see the region become an independent state.  There are a number of other indigenous ethnic groups in the area, including Sherpas, Bengalis, Anglo-Indians, Chinese, Biharis and Tibetans.

On a clear day, you can see an exceptional view of Kangchenjunga – the tallest mountain in India and the third highest in the world — from Tumsong. It’s proximity to the Himalayas generates a constant, cool breeze, making the tea buds grow gradually and saturating their leaves with a “muscatel” flavor.  This unique flavor, the result of small insects sucking juices from the stems of tea plants, is one of the reasons Darjeeling tea is so prized.

 Harvest Seasons of Darjeeling

In order to understand tea tasting and production better, one must become attuned to a garden’s “flushes” — harvest periods throughout the year which produce varying qualities of tea. Tea is plucked from the same tea bushes and processed with the same methods during each flush, but seasonal climate variations produce distinct flavors.

The first flush takes place in mid-March, after the spring rains have arrived and the tea bushes are a vibrant green color. A cup of first flush Darjeeling tea is light green in color and has a soft floral aroma with a mildly astringent taste.

Tea pluckers bring the autumnal flush to be weighed at Tumsong.

Just before the monsoon season begins in June, the second flush is harvested. A personal favorite of mine, the second flush tea is a bit darker in color with a stronger flavor and a mild fruit taste.

The final harvest, which had occurred just before my arrival at Tumsong, is called the autumnal flush and offers a rounded cup of scents and flavors. Because this flush occurs during the monsoon, the tea leaves are extra-large and make a brew that is coppery in color with the most full-bodied taste of all the flushes.

Protecting Biodiversity

Darjeeling is located in the Eastern Himalayan zoo-geographic zone, home to endemic rare plants like high elevation orchids and endangered animals such as one-horned rhinoceroses and snow leopards. Deforestation is a serious issue in the area, largely due to increasing demand for wood fuel and timber, and air pollution from traffic congestion in the towns.

The Tumsong Tea Factory.

Fortunately, Chamong Ltd — the company that owns Tumsong Estate – is an environmental champion with a strong commitment to sustainability and a number of certifications for environmental and social stewardship.  All of its gardens are managed with minimal to no pesticides and synthetic fertilizers, and several are Rainforest Alliance Certified.

Earning Rainforest Alliance Certification

In order to become Rainforest Alliance Certified, Tumsong went through a rigorous process to meet the Sustainable Agriculture Network (SAN) Standard, which covers waste and water management, integrated crop and pest management, and workers services and rights. It’s a challenging process in Darjeeling, particularly because erosion, pests and blights regularly affect the steep and variable terrain on which the tea is planted. Through collaborative work with the Rainforest Alliance, tea companies like Chamong are working to address these issues in a manner than is environmentally and economically sustainable.

Kanchenjunga Mountain, the third highest mountain in the world.

Enjoying Impeccable Hospitality

One of the best parts of the experience of staying at Tumsong Tea Estate is the hospitality. I stayed in the main tea house or ‘Chiabari,’ a gorgeous colonial mansion with porches facing the Himalayas, cozy fireplaces and a full-service kitchen. Particularly delightful is the tradition of bringing a tray of “bed tea” to your room each morning at the hour of your preference. The hospitality only added to an already remarkable experience in an exceptional setting.

Tourists who are interested in a first-hand experience of Rainforest Alliance Certified tea production in beautiful Darjeeling can reserve rooms at the Chiabari. Tumsong is a three-hour drive from Bagdogra airport in West Bengal and 18 miles from the town of Darjeeling, where visitors can enjoy a ride on the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1999 and one of the only steam powered trains still operating in the world. 

Part I: What Can We Learn From Brazil?

Chad Trewick is senior director of coffee and tea at Caribou Coffee – the first major coffee company in the US to source 100 percent of its coffee from Rainforest Alliance Certified™ farms. Here, he writes about a recent trip to Brazil to explore sustainable coffee production.

Brazil is a generation (maybe even two or three) ahead of the rest of the coffee-producing world in terms of technology, efficiency, sustainability and productivity per area. In fact, practices in the world’s most important coffee-producing country could pave the way for sustainable coffee production globally, securing a steady supply in the face of climate change, volatility and land-use pressures. The country is not, however, impervious to those changes; this year, folks in Brazil experienced the first June rainfall in collective memory, causing quality compromises and headaches for everyone involved in coffee production.

As part of an ongoing project with the Rainforest Alliance designed to determine the measurable benefits and value of certification, I embarked on a trip with the organization’s Sustainable Agriculture Network partner in Brazil, Imaflora. The goal was to see and understand innovations and best practices in sustainability, and to share these with producers and exporters in other countries.

On our way to our first stop, Rodrigo Cascalles of Imaflora and I discussed how we can determine the objective “value” of certification. It should come as no surprise that typically the top motivation for certification is the price premium a producer can receive. But while the financial benefit is huge incentive, other reasons weigh heavily, too.

Leaders in Environmental Law

Brazilian social and environmental laws are nearly unparalleled in agriculture. Twenty percent of a producer’s land must be set aside as a forest reserve; waterways are strictly protected; and rigid social laws governing labor conditions and services abound.

According Imaflora, complying with Brazilian regulations will bring any law-abiding producer as much as 90 percent of the way to certification! (For comparison, picture the agricultural landscape in the US — we plant crops right up to just about any body of water, roadway or abode.) A few months ago, however, laws changed and the waterway protection rules became dependent on the size of the river or lake. In some cases, less protection is now required. New laws also reward producers who exceed their requirements for natural reserves, permitting them to receive payment from other producers who need to comply with the reserve area requirements.

Protectors of People

Farmers also speak of the rigorous social requirements imposed by the government. Any worker who steps onto a farm to work must first receive a baseline medical exam. The government also mandates worker housing, setting minimum standards for the exact space each worker is allotted, the size and thickness of his mattresses (including its distance from the ceiling and the space between mattresses), and the layout of bathroom facilities and eating areas. Conditions in the field are also carefully defined: sunscreen must be available for use; arms and necks must be covered by clothing; drinking water must be available; a shade tent must be provided; portable toilets must be on site, and ankles need to be covered to protect from snakes. Compared to conditions I see regularly on farms in other countries, these mandates are absolutely amazing — but, as I was reminded several times, it is also a lot for a producer to be held accountable for.

Rainforest Alliance Certification in Brazil

Producers pointed out that the government is much less likely to inspect and enforce national regulations on a Rainforest Alliance Certified farm because they know that the farm must be in compliance in order to be certified.  However, because Rainforest Alliance certification requires compliance with all local mandates, the cost of production for law-abiding and certified producers is actually significantly higher than the national average. We need to continuously highlight the benefits of certification — and not only the incremental costs  – in conversations with all members of the supply chain. The cost of certification shouldn’t overshadow the very real on-the-ground benefits. The fact that Rainforest Alliance Certified farms are considered the best places to work for a laborer highlights the better conditions on these farms.

Farmers also receive a sought-after premium for their Rainforest Alliance Certified coffee. And, when they implement production efficiencies, they can maximize these premiums.

The record-keeping and continuous improvement requirements mandated by the Rainforest Alliance provide tangible productivity benefits. A producer’s logged activities are studied and evaluated annually so that they can improve their conditions and reduce their resource usage.

Certification also results in improvements in flora and fauna. Most farmers I spoke with truly celebrated (in an unsolicited way) all of the species and the natural elements that are returning to their farms and, in some cases, even benefiting their operations. They told me about native bird species, increased wild boar sightings, and diversified native species planted in forest reserves. This appreciation of nature is being passed to future generations and the broader community, and helping to create a culture with a deeper respect for nature.

Certified farms are also required to be responsible members of their communities. Many are involved in school improvement projects and clean-up efforts, and place a great emphasis on educating students about the importance of caring for the environment. This can be a particularly effective tool for educating adults. Children of farm workers can take messages home and begin the process of educating their parents. Students also learn to be better guardians of their limited resources. At one school, for example, students were asked to turn trash into usable items to demonstrate that most things can (and should) be more than single-use.

Cooperatives in Brazil

As in many other countries, cooperatives in Brazil can provide an opportunity for increased efficiency because producers are working with greater crop volume. And through their technical assistance programs, many cooperatives are actively encouraging certification.

I visited one coop on a multi-year plan toward 100 percent certification among its members by 2014. Another coop was working toward 70 to 80 percent certification by the end of next year.  This widespread certification support among coops is a great endorsement and empowers producers to make the decision to pursue certification.

Check back to read part II of Chad’s blog from Brazil.

Good News for Cocoa and the Global Food System

Eric Servat, senior manager of the Rainforest Alliance’s cocoa program, talks about the growth and challenges of our cocoa work.

While Halloween is the peak time for chocolate news in the US, the holidays are  our peak chocolate eating season.   Any chocolate enjoyed in the US is likely to contain cocoa grown in Côte d’Ivoire, the world’s largest cocoa producer.  And cocoa beans from Côte d’Ivoire are now increasingly likely to be grown on Rainforest Alliance Certified^TM farms.

Rainforest Alliance certification has grown phenomenally in Côte d’Ivoire since leading brands such as Mars, Unilever, Kraft and Hershey, and processors such as Barry Callebaut, the world’s largest chocolate manufacturer, committed to sourcing their cocoa from Rainforest Alliance Certified farms. Some 75,000 Ivorian farms, covering more than 1.2 million acres (500,000 hectares), have become Rainforest Alliance Certified in just the last six years.  This massive expansion is driven by the recognition that cocoa farmers’ incomes and yields need to rise dramatically to make cocoa production  sustainable, and that certification can help accomplish these goals.

There are more than a million cocoa farmers in Côte d’Ivoire, the vast majority of them smallholders, plus another 3.5 million Ivorians who depend on income from cocoa-related activities.  After a brief spike during the 2011 civil conflict, prices paid to farmers for cocoa beans are again low. Until recently, Ivorian farmers received a fraction of what cocoa sold for on commodities markets in London and New York.  Côte d’Ivoire has a long history of price volatility, exploited smallholders earning low wages and child labor.

These are intertwined, systemic and longstanding problems.  But they’re problems with consequences too severe to tolerate, and the new Ivorian government acknowledges that they must be remedied.  Unfair cocoa prices and poverty wages for cocoa farmers have been cited as important factors in Côte d’Ivoire’s political instability during the last 11 years of civil war.  The Nation wrote in 2011, “The fundamental reason that fighting is breaking out again [in Côte d'Ivoire is] a profoundly unjust international economic order that pays the people who supply our primary products a pittance and leaves their nations chronically ill with unemployment and poverty, and with people who will fight one another over scarce resources.”

Unrest in Côte d’Ivoire threatened disruptions in cocoa supply, already under long-term pressure from pests, fungi, unsustainable farming techniques and, increasingly, climate change and drought.  Supply will have to increase steadily to meet progressively climbing demand  — for the last century, cocoa demand has grown consistently at a rate of 3 percent a year.   Low yields have raised speculation about future cocoa shortages.  More fundamentally, low yields and inadequate incomes undercut the aspirations of millions of Ivorians for better lives for themselves and their families, and basic equity for growers of this $5 billion global commodity.

The key to achieving justice for Ivorians and an adequate future supply of cocoa for consumers is to raise yields dramatically.  It can certainly be done.  After working with USDA and IBM to map the cocoa genome, Mars announced this year it knows how to raise yields from 400 kg per hectare to 1,500 kg. Beyond assuring future supply, higher yields generate higher income for farmers, and reduce economic pressures that exploit smallholders and draw children into working on the farms.

Since 2008 the Rainforest Alliance has worked with multiple stakeholders to make cocoa production sustainable and raise yields and profitability. In Côte d’Ivoire and elsewhere, Rainforest Alliance Certified farms rely on sustainable soil, crop, pest, water and energy management to cut costs and raise yields on existing farmland, without clearing forestland for crops or resorting to damaging slash-and-burn, chemical-intensive methods.  The Committee on Sustainability Assessment (COSA) recently studied the impact of Rainforest Alliance certification on cocoa farming in Côte d’Ivoire.   It found that after adopting sustainable techniques and becoming certified, farms increased their yields 58 percent, and raised their net incomes by almost a factor of four.

Meanwhile, the Coffee and Cocoa Council issued this new reform, which  has raised expectations; their objectives are to promote transparency, sustainability, fair pricing and farmers group strengthening.   We’re confident that as certification grows, and collaboration continues to improve among the key actors, so will the lives of cocoa farmers in Côte d’Ivoire.

Problems there remain entrenched — prices and yields generally are low, farms are vulnerable, examples of child labor and other abuses aren’t yet hard to find, future and sustainable supply isn’t yet secure.  Farmers and those who depend on them are still poor and competing for scarce resources.  But certification has proven an efficient tool for increasing yields and multiplying farmers’ incomes, putting more farms and livelihoods on a sustainable footing.

Globally, we’re facing rising food demand as the population heads to 10 billion by mid-century and emerging economies eat higher on the food chain.  To meet this demand, the global food system must do what Côte d’Ivoire is now doing: working with stakeholders to raise yields on existing farmland sustainably, without clearing more forests, degrading more grazing land or exacerbating climate change and biodiversity loss. Rainforest Alliance certification offers a body of evidence that argues this can be done, and is being done, by adopting environmentally and socially sustainable farming practices that help local ecosystems and communities thrive together.

The Women of Vietnam’s Central Highlands

Part III of a Vietnam travelogue from Dipika Chawla, our New York-based online communities coordinator.

The shade trees overhead provided welcome protection from the mid-morning sun as I joined about 100 farmers on a Robusta coffee farm in the Central Highlands of Vietnam. We were gathered for a NESCAFÉ Plan farmer training session, the first of six that will take place over the next year.

Phung Thi Huu, a lead farmer under the NESCAFÉ Better Farming Practices training program, talks to a group of 100 Vietnamese farmers about rejuvenation, grafting, pruning, harvesting and other topics relevant to the region.

Here, Phung Thi Huu — a petite, middle-aged woman who wielded her megaphone with natural confidence — easily commanded the attention of the large group of mostly male farmers as she spoke about rejuvenation, grafting, pruning, harvesting and other topics relevant to the region.  As a NESCAFÉ Plan participant and community leader, Huu had taken part in the NESCAFÉ Better Farming Practices (NBFP) training program earlier this year hosted with support from the Rainforest Alliance. She is now responsible for training and managing 90 farmers from her village, Cao Thang, in the Dak Lak province.

Afterwards, when the whole group sat down for lunch at the home of one of the farmers, Huu worked the crowd. She floated between different groups of people, joking, laughing comfortably and making sure everyone had a place to sit. At one point, I watched a farmer say something to her and saw her respond with a smile and a bashful, dismissive gesture. My interpreter learned over and said, “He was telling her what a great speaker she was today.”

Farmers listen attentively to Huu’s dynamic presentation.

After lunch, I sat down with Huu to talk about her experience as a coffee farmer. I learned that her family had once cultivated rice. Seeking a more profitable crop, they switched to coffee in 1989, and many families in the village soon followed suit.

According to Huu, who has been part of the NESCAFE Plan since 2011, the training has deepened her technical knowledge of coffee farming. For example, she now knows how to select better quality seedlings and how to determine the exact amount of fertilizer required without letting any go to waste.

Two other women farmers I spoke with during my trip, Phung Thi Ngoc Loan and Thi Huong Nguyen, identified pruning techniques as one of the most important topics covered during the training program.

Phung Thi Ngoc Loan, a farmer in Vietnam, says that through training ““we learned that if you don’t prune the coffee trees properly, there will be too many branches sucking all the nutrients from the soil, which reduces productivity later on.”

“We learned that if you don’t prune the coffee trees properly, there will be too many branches sucking all the nutrients from the soil, which reduces productivity later on,” explained Loan. “If you do prune properly, the tree will be healthier and produce more cherries.”

Loan said that the training showed her how to identify early symptoms of coffee disease and pest damage. She has also started a compost pile with readily available materials, such as coffee husks, that she can use as fertilizer — thereby allowing her to decrease her use of chemical fertilizers. She estimates that she has reduced her fertilizer expenses by 10 to 20 percent as a result of composting.

A dog stands on a coffee farm in Vietnam.

Reducing chemical use is a common theme in the program. In addition to reducing chemical fertilizers, all three farmers reported using less herbicide for weeding purposes. On her small 3.7-acre (1.5-hectare) farm, Nguyen has cut out herbicides altogether, relying solely on hand weeding. In doing so, she’s protecting her family’s health and keeping valuable insects that help to soften her soil.

The Nguyen family carries out all of the field work, except in the harvest season, when they may hire a few extra laborers.

I asked Nguyen if she had noticed any other differences in the natural environment. “There are more birds, because of the shade trees and because we’ve been using less chemicals,” she said.  “Actually, they’re very useful for catching small pests.”

A spread of dried coffee cherries.

The shade trees offer more than bird habitat. In the training, Nguyen learned how to more evenly disperse the shade trees on her farm to create a proper canopy, which protects the coffee plants, maintains humidity and limits the growth of weeds. Fruit-bearing shade trees (such as avocado, durian and lychee) provide an added bonus. “Some of the fruit we eat and the rest we can sell at the market for a bit of extra income,” said Nguyen.

For Nguyen and Loan, the transition to sustainable agriculture has been smooth.  “In general, none of the new techniques are too difficult to follow,” Loan said. “If I have a question, I can just ask my neighbors and imitate what they are doing.”

Indeed, the vast majority of the coffee farmers in the region are smallholders, and neighbors are more than willing to help each other and exchange advice. “Some of my neighbors didn’t participate in the earlier trainings,” recalled Loan. “So when I returned from the training, I taught them what I learned about grafting techniques. After seeing how beneficial it was, they decided to participate in the next session.”

Huu posed with her grandson on her coffee farm.

Huu, on the other hand, had a somewhat different perspective as a lead farmer responsible for formally passing on the information to the other farmers in her village. She identified cultural differences as an issue, since several of the farmers in Cao Thang belong to different ethnic groups. She found that the language barrier sometimes makes it difficult to communicate and the older generation can be more resistant to adopting unfamiliar modern practices. She noted, however, that the younger generation, regardless of ethnicity, is always eager to learn and picks up new techniques very quickly.

In the short time since she joined the NESCAFÉ Plan, Huu has already perceived noticeable benefits to her farm. Her yields are higher and her costs are reduced, and she is pleased with her family’s increased awareness. They have all improved their knowledge of coffee quality, sanitation, chemical safety and environmental impacts. This means a better farming business for generations to come.

All three women said they looked forward to participating in as many NESCAFÉ Plan training events as possible. “I am always trying to learn more,” said Loan. “Farmers always need to learn more.”

Read part I and II of Dipika’s Vietnam travelogue.

A Sustainable Future for Vietnam

Dipika Chawla, our New York-based online communities coordinator, shares stories from her recent trip to meet with coffee farmers in the Central Highlands region of Vietnam.

As my plane descended into Buon Ma Thuot, the capital of Dak Lak province, I peered down at the rectangular plots of coffee plants stretching neat and green across the fertile landscape.  Three flights and two days after leaving New York City, I’d finally landed in Vietnam’s “capital of coffee,” known for decades as the heart of Vietnam’s flourishing coffee industry.

Vietnam has a vibrant coffee culture.

Accompanying me was Pham Tuong Vinh, Vietnam country coordinator for the Rainforest Alliance’s sustainable landscapes team. During the car ride from the airport to our hotel, Vinh pointed out the multitude of cafés populating every street. Though the average consumer in the West may not immediately associate Vietnam with coffee, this Southeast Asian nation boasts a vibrant coffee culture and is actually the second largest coffee exporter in the world. It is also the number one exporter of Robusta coffee, a variety that is cheaper to produce, more disease-resistant and stronger in flavor and caffeine content than the Arabica variety favored by most Western coffee drinkers.

Such a huge share of the world’s coffee production means that positive changes made in Vietnam resonate globally—making the Rainforest Alliance’s work here tremendously significant. Over a meal of curried chicken and fried rice with fish sauce, I got the chance to speak with Vinh about the Rainforest Alliance’s efforts to transform Vietnam’s coffee industry. “The national government wants 20 percent of Robusta coffee production to be certified as sustainable by 2016,” she said. “There are already five companies in Vietnam that own Rainforest Alliance Certified^TM coffee farms, and we expect that number to grow.”

Pham Tuong Vinh is the Vietnam country coordinator for the Rainforest Alliance’s sustainable landscapes team.

One of the Rainforest Alliance’s most important collaborations in Vietnam is with NESCAFÉ, Nestlé’s line of instant coffee and one of the largest coffee brands in the world. For more than a decade, NESCAFÉ and the Rainforest Alliance have worked together on coffee farms to define advanced farm management practices and improve the livelihoods of farmers. The Rainforest Alliance’s experienced agricultural specialists are working alongside Nestlé’s agronomists, the Sustainable Agriculture Network (SAN) and 4C (Common Code for the Coffee Community) to combine traditional farmer wisdom with modern science to give farmers new tools and techniques so that they can succeed in their quest for sustainability.

In addition to working with coffee growers, the Rainforest Alliance is also promoting sustainable practices on tea farms that cover more than 328,000 acres (133,000 hectares) of land in Vietnam. In 2011, Vinh oversaw the training of 40 smallholders from tea estates in the north as well as the first certification of a Vietnamese tea company, Phu Ben. Our agriculture team aims to have 30,000 metric tons of tea grown on certified farms by 2015.

[From left to right] Dipika Chawla, our New York-based online communities coordinator, with a Vietnamese farmer.

The Rainforest Alliance has also adapted the SAN Standard to encompass the production of spices, including pepper. Vietnam, along with India, Indonesia and Madagascar, has been chosen as a location to implement the first phase of this project. The standard addresses a number of widespread problems in the pepper farming industry, including soil and water conservation, protection of workers, responsible waste management and the prohibition of dangerous pesticides and genetically modified organisms. In March 2012, the Rainforest Alliance completed an adaptation of these guidelines for pepper farming in Vietnam.

While we are making progress, transforming the agricultural sector in Vietnam is not without its challenges. According to Vinh, it has been difficult to change attitudes toward agrochemical use. “Farmers traditionally use a lot of chemicals in their fertilizer and for pest and weed control,” she said. “They even use paraquat, which is known to cause serious neurological damage.”

A coffee farmer stands among her cherries.

As most of Vietnam’s coffee is produced on small family farms between two and three acres (one and two hectares) in size, much of the field work is done by family members. Consequently, issues involving worker health hit, quite literally, close to home. As part of the Rainforest Alliance training program,  Vinh educates farmers about the dangers of certain chemicals and trains them to use safer techniques, such as applying a combination of less harmful agrochemicals and organic compost as fertilizer, employing Integrated Pest Management (IPM) techniques instead of resorting to heavy pesticide use, and partially or fully replacing herbicides with hand and machine weeding. (The Sustainable Agriculture Network standards allow for some limited, rigorously controlled agrochemicals and strictly prohibit all chemicals listed on the Dirty Dozen list of the Pesticide Action Network North America as well as those banned by the USDA and the European Food and Drug Administration.) Farmers must keep a log of all purchases and applications of permitted chemicals, and the Rainforest Alliance provides ongoing training and assistance to help farmers continue to reduce their use of agrochemicals.

Vinh recalled a conversation with one particular tea farmer, about a year after she had been trained by the Rainforest Alliance. “She told me that she’s so happy with how clean her farm is now that they are properly dealing with waste,” said Vinh. “She said people have taken notice of how beautiful her farm looks with all of the shade trees and lack of waste. She’s also happy that her family’s health is being protected, as they’ve stopped using SAN-prohibited pesticides and learned how to use personal protective equipment while using chemicals.”

Although the Rainforest Alliance has only been working in Vietnam for a few years, nearly 50,000 acres (20,000 hectares) of its farmland have already been certified. “We are very young in Vietnam,” Pham said, “But I think step by step, we are contributing to changing the landscape of the agricultural sector.”