{"id":131164,"date":"2025-09-09T12:17:15","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T12:17:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/131164\/"},"modified":"2025-09-09T12:17:15","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T12:17:15","slug":"rainforest-alliance-launching-regenerative-agriculture-certification-for-coffee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/131164\/","title":{"rendered":"Rainforest Alliance Launching Regenerative Agriculture Certification for Coffee"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"coffee<\/a><\/p>\n

Coffee growing under a shade canopy. Daily Coffee News photo by Nick Brown.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rainforest Alliance<\/a> just announced the launch of a new standard and certification for regenerative agriculture in coffee, with a distinct \u201cregenerative\u201d seal expected to land on consumer coffee bags in 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The organization, which reduced requirements for its core sustainable agriculture certification<\/a> earlier this year, said the new regenerative agriculture add-on is designed to give farmers and buyers a science-based pathway to achieve positive outcomes in soil health, biodiversity, water stewardship, climate resilience and livelihoods.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In an announcement today, Rainforest Alliance also pointed to a recent report from TechnoServe suggesting that transitioning to regenerative agriculture in numerous key coffee-growing countries could significantly boost exports and farmer income<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMarkets need to move beyond a \u2018do no harm\u2019 mindset to one that repairs and restores,\u201d Rainforest Alliance CEO Santiago Gowland said. \u201cNow is the time to transition to a new model of agriculture \u2014 one where every cup of coffee gives back more than it takes from the land and the people who care for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"coffee<\/a><\/p>\n

Through the new program<\/a>, current RA certificate holders can add 17 regenerative requirements to their existing Sustainable Agriculture Standard certification. Alternatively, they can pursue regenerative certification as a standalone option, combining those 17 criteria with 102 other baseline requirements.<\/p>\n

Over the past decade, the phrase \u201cregenerative agriculture\u201d has moved from the most progressive fringes of the direct-trade specialty coffee movement into mainstream parlance regarding corporate sustainability. An organization called the Regenerative Organic Alliance was the first to market a \u201cregenerative\u201d seal for coffee, with the first Regenerative Organic Certified coffees reaching the market in 2022<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The timing of the RA program is notable on multiple fronts, as climate change<\/a>, deforestation<\/a> and complacency among the most powerful public and private sector actors continue to threaten the future of coffee farming.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It also comes just days after a separate NGO, the Global Coffee Platform, announced RegenCoffee, a non-competitive initiative that proposes a \u201ccommon language\u201d for regenerative agriculture<\/a>. A guidance document from that initiative repeatedly references Rainforest Alliance work promoting regenerative agriculture from 2020 and 2022.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The timing of the RA standard also intersects with the looming implementation of the new European deforestation-free supply chain law, known as EUDR<\/a>, coming for large European companies on Dec. 30, 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As with most voluntary standards or certification schemes, the RA regenerative certification process has the potential to add burdens to smallholder farmers who may already be strapped for resources.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Yet in the announcement today, RA\u2019s Gowland said that the add-on followed \u201cyears of research and collaboration with farmers and companies.\u201d<\/p>\n

RA said the regenerative standard is already being implemented at coffee farms in Brazil,\u00a0Costa Rica,\u00a0Mexico and Nicaragua, with companies sourcing coffees from those farms expected to bring the first regenerative-certified coffees to store shelves next year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Comments? Questions? News to share?\u00a0Contact DCN\u2019s editors here<\/a>. For all the latest coffee industry news,\u00a0subscribe to the DCN newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Related Posts<\/p>\n


\n
\n <\/a><\/p>\n


\n
\n <\/a><\/p>\n


\n
\n <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Coffee growing under a shade canopy. Daily Coffee News photo by Nick Brown. \u00a0 Rainforest Alliance just announced…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":131165,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,48,71695,6093,8566,295,16028,71696,71697,71698,71699,71700,71701,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-131164","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-certifications","11":"tag-climate-change","12":"tag-deforestation","13":"tag-environment","14":"tag-environmental-sustainability","15":"tag-gcp-regencoffee","16":"tag-global-coffee-platform","17":"tag-rainforest-alliance","18":"tag-rainforest-alliance-regenerative","19":"tag-regenerative-agriculture","20":"tag-santiago-gowland","21":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131164"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131164\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}