The World

Regenerative agriculture and NESCAFÉ coffee

If beans could talk

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Regenerative agriculture and NESCAFÉ coffee

Before your delicious cup of NESCAFÉ was brewed from freshly roasted beans, it was a basket of raw green beans from cherries plucked from a tree halfway across the world. Every day, tons of green beans arrive at a NESCAFÉ roasting facility, and every bean has its own story to tell. NESCAFÉ wants to make sure that sustainability is at the heart of the story because if beans could talk, we would want to hear everything they had to say.

Man wearing hat working in a coffee farm

Coffee that doesn’t just taste good it wants to do good

NESCAFÉ in Europe is 100% responsibly sourced coffee, supporting coffee farmers to improve their lands and livelihood. Responsibly sourced coffee is traceable to the group of farms where it was grown and is produced in accordance with sustainability standards that have been validated as equivalent to our Responsible Sourcing Standard.

Traceability and compliance are verified by independent organisations, such as 4C Services, the Rainforest Alliance and Fairtrade, which deploy accredited local auditors to assess a range of factors, including social, environmental, economic and health and safety conditions at farm.

Why is soil health important? - The future of coffee is beneath our feet

When it comes to growing coffee, soil is really important. Healthy soil not only helps make farms more productive it helps to make them more sustainable. Healthy soil can capture carbon, requires less fertiliser, and is more resistant to the impacts of climate change. NESCAFÉ is supporting several thousand farmers to work on soil health by engaging in regenerative agriculture.

Variety makes the farm go round

It takes more than just coffee trees to grow good coffee. Promoting biodiversity is vital for healthy soil. In Thailand and Indonesia, coffee farmers plant betel nuts, peppers, chillies, and avocados.

A greater variety of plants attracts a greater number of insects that pollinate fields and support local wildlife. More shade means less need for herbicides and more leaves when shed, enrich the soil’s organic matter. It is widely known that trees capture carbon emissions, control soil erosion, recycle nutrients and protect watersheds. More crops can also mean more products to sell or feed local families and it all goes back to the farmers we work with.

“NESCAFÉ in Europe is 100% responsibly sourced coffee, supporting coffee farmers to improve their lands and livelihood.”

A cup of coffee can help make a change

It might sound ambitious, but efforts to source responsibly and deforestation-free, increase biodiversity, and improve soil health through regenerative agriculture will help make NESCAFÉ a force for positive change. Now, when you enjoy a NESCAFÉ, you know that your cup of coffee is helping to make a difference.

The future of coffee

Globally, more than 23,000 cups of coffee are drunk every second, but with so many of us enjoying it, we need to take action to not to be left with empty cups.

Climate change, crop diseases, water shortage and people leaving farms for cities, all threaten the future of coffee. If we want to keep drinking it, we need to plan. That's why in 2010 we setup the NESCAFÉ Plan and we've been working towards positive change ever since.