Written by Tigger Chaturabul from curioustyphoon.com
We are so excited to bring you another update on our tree planting project, in partnership with Eco Vietnam Group. Since our collaboration began in April 2020, we have planted over 100 fruit trees in the Lam Dong area in Vietnam! Organic farming has been a huge part of Impact Berry’s mission and through YOUR contributions by buying our fair trade coffee beans, we’ve been able to sponsor a variety of fruit tree saplings that were planted and are being taken care of by our local NGO partner in the area. So far, we’ve planted:
Why organic farming?
Impact Berry coffee is grown organically, free from chemical pesticides, and harvested by hand. Everything we do works to promote a sustainable agricultural system that thrives on the natural ecosystem, which includes the surrounding plants, helpful insects, and local wildlife. Coffee and fruit trees often grow hand in hand, with the fruit trees providing shade and coffee plants acting as a natural pest repellant due to their caffeine content.
Diversifying agricultural land also has its benefits over monoculture farms. According to the Permaculture Research Institute, “Permaculture integrates land, resources, people and the environment through mutually beneficial synergies – imitating the no waste, closed loop systems seen in diverse natural systems.” Together with Eco Vietnam Group, we’re growing our impact on the communities surrounding the coffee farms we source from through education, culture, and livelihood based on permaculture and organic farming.
Beyond fair trade coffee beans
When you purchase a bag of Impact Berry coffee beans, you’re not only ensuring the farmers who cultivated and processed the beans earn a fair income from their hard work – you’re also contributing to our tree planting project that goes beyond coffee income. We chose to invest in native fruit trees because the fruit that grows also goes on to contribute to other lines of income beyond the coffee season. Farmers can harvest produce year round for more stable income when they have diverse crops growing on their land.
Fair trade is only the first step in responsible commerce. The ultimate goal is to empower sustainable livelihoods through farming, and that includes high quality products, stabilized income, and continued improvement. With a variety of organic food around them, the community can have more flexibility to process crops into products that will earn them higher prices in the long run, empowering more people to work together and add value.
Buy coffee, plant trees
All of this is made possible by YOU, and we thank you wholeheartedly for your continued support of Impact Berry coffee and the impact-oriented philosophy we believe in. We can’t wait to see where this tree planting project takes us! As we continue to work on more social projects like delivering water filters to families in Indonesia, we invite you to be part of the journey with the simple act of buying coffee beans from our communities.
