Sustainably Delicious: The Benefits of Agroforestry for Coffee and Chocolate Production

☕ Coffee and cacao plants and trees originally grow in the shade of the forest. But to increase production, many farms now grow coffee or cacao directly in the sun.

And that means tropical rainforest is cut down to make space for plantations.

One of the solutions is agroforestry: mixing food production with forest.

That makes it possible to turn monoculture coffee plantations back into forests.

Monocultures are terrible for biodiversity. They are also more vulnerable in a warming climate.

There is no good reason to have chocolate and coffee monocultures.

The only thing we have to accept as consumers is that cheap coffee and chocolate don’t exist.

The best way to find agroforestry products is to look for high-quality, single-origin coffee or chocolate.

Single-origin creates a lot more transparency and ensures fair wages.

And the higher quality is a good sign because you can’t grow high-quality cocoa in monocultures.

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🙋‍♂️ I share facts about climate change and food. Follow me and join the exploration for a sustainable version of 'The Good Life‘.

📢 I also want to give a shoutout to Raluca Dumitrache who drew these beautiful illustrations and helps us with our infographics :)

By Frank Holleman

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#agroforestry #chocolate #coffee #sustainablefoodsystems