21st Street Coffee and Tea

Geoff Watts of Intelligentsia discusses how Organic Certification factors in to the Direct Trade model.

“It is most definitely true that there is a lot of coffee grown in situations where zero chemical fertilizer, fungacide, herbacide, or pesticides are applied, but where the coffee carries no certifications of any kind. Most of the time these are “organic by default” coffees where the farmer cannot access or afford chemicals, so it’s not a choice to be organic, but simple necessity.”