Well, it's actually not so easy to answer...
The sad truth is that today there is no easy way to guarantee that your coffee is free from deforestation and rights abuses. But, there’s a lot you can do to buy from the heart, and lean in to - at least somewhat - more responsible coffee production. Researching your coffee helps!
While there's no quick fix to be absolutely sure whether your coffee has caused deforestation, forest degradation, or slavery and child labor, here are things you can do to find the most responsibly produced coffee.
Shade: In general, drinking shade-grown, organic coffee is a huge help. Look for “shade-grown” or “agroforestry” or “Smithsonian bird friendly” or even “Rainforest Alliance” certification (though the latter is not as good/ambitious a standard as the Smithsonian certification). Not all supermarkets sell "shade coffee" from organic farms, but there are a good handful of retailers online, as well as many specialist shops selling this type of coffee.
Living income: Another key path to sustainability is drinking coffee that explicitly guarantees the farmers earned a ‘living income price’ or a ‘living wage’. (Fair Trade does take some steps to make coffee a bit more fair for farmers, and pushes for a degree of social responsibility, better working conditions. Unfortunately though, by their own admission, they do not guarantee a living income price to farmers or fair wages to farmworkers.)
Combi-certified: Because most coffee certifications are flawed and incomplete, one approach (though this is by no means perfect) is if you look for a combination of certifications on the coffee, aka “combi-certified coffee”.
- The best combination would be Smithsonian and living wage,
- and second best combination would be Rainforest Alliance and Fairtrade.
- Third best is if you combine “organic” with RA or FT.
Why do we say this? Smithsonian bird friendly certification is the most environmentally rigorous of all the coffee certifications out there.
Chemical-free: It’s usually a good idea to buy coffee that is organically produced or made with fewer chemicals. You can buy organic certified coffee to solve this particular problem! And, the Smithsonian bird friendly certification actually covers organic already. But roughly speaking, Fair Trade gets a B or B+ on pesticides, and Rainforest Alliance probably a B- on pesticides. Which is still a lot better than F.
Buying organic coffee means you ensure a number of environmental considerations, for example protection against the use of pesticides and synthetic fertilisers. Unfortunately, organic doesn't look at deforestation or slavery or other abuses.
If you can buy coffee that is direct trade, shade-grown, zero-deforestation, organic, and living income, that is of course ideal!
We share here some rankings and buyers' guides created by others in case you want to see what others recommend you buy to try and ensure your coffee is ethical & sustainable:
https://thegoodshoppingguide.com/subject/ethical-coffee/
https://www.thegoodtrade.com/features/fair-trade-coffee-brands/
https://www.cacultured.com/blog/ethical-sustainable-coffee-brands
https://pebblemag.com/ethical-coffee/
https://www.causeartist.com/ethical-coffee-brands/