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For chocophiles and those with an ordinary sweet tooth: when that next chocolate craving strikes and you reach for a chocolate bar certified by the Rainforest Alliance, know that you're not only getting a tasty treat, but that the chocolate was made from sustainably grown cocoa, which supports both the wellbeing of native ecosystems and the producer's economic and agricultural efforts. Consumer Reports rates this eco-label with the frog inside as "highly meaningful".

Find it! Rainforest Alliance Certified chocolate

Before you buy

Of the Rainforest Alliance Certified crops (cocoa, coffee, tea, vanilla, bananas, oranges, pineapples, flowers, ferns, guava, passion fruit, plantains, and macadamia nuts), coffee is probably the easiest to buy. Partnerships secured in 2007 with McDonald's UK, the Holiday Inn chain of hotels in the US, and Whole Foods Market locations in the US and Canada all factor into the expected growth of Rainforest Alliance Certified coffee.[1] Cocoa (which is made into chocolate) only began to be certified in 2004, so it's not yet as plentiful. You may need to order it online if you can't find it at your local natural foods store or gourmet food shop.

Choosing Rainforest Alliance Certified chocolate helps you go green because…

• It's grown to safeguard natural habitats—by requiring shade cover, protecting waterways, and using minimal to no chemicals—while ensuring the fair treatment of farmers.

The impetus for the Rainforest Alliance certification program was this: forests in the tropics were being felled to make way for agricultural expansion, destroying valuable wildlife habitat, contaminating waterways, and eroding the delicate soil, leaving the land ultimately unproductive after a few years. To protect the environment in these threatened areas, the Sustainable Agriculture Network (SAN), a coalition of nonprofit conservation groups from Belize, Brazil, Columbia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico, and a watchdog group in Denmark joined forces to create the Rainforest Alliance. The organization was designed to be a unique program, managed by a conglomeration of local groups who understand the conditions, problems, governments, cultures, and ecology involved in cocoa farming.

Cocoa farmers who want to be certified by the Rainforest Alliance must meet the guidelines set forth by SAN. These include ecosystem and wildlife conservation, integrated crop management, humane treatment of workers, complete management of wastes, soil and water conservation, as well as ongoing planning and monitoring. Certified farms are inspected annually and must show continued progress in areas such as improving vegetative buffers between production areas and buildings, water bodies, and roads, and working to reduce the number of minors employed at harvest time.

Though the first certified cocoa came from Ecuador in 2004,[2] the Rainforest Alliance and their Ecuadorian partner, Conservación y Desarrollo (C&D), have been working since 1997 to revive the traditional practice of growing cocoa in the shade of the forest, which preserves habitat for plants and animals as well as maintains natural pollinators and the predators of cocoa pests. Kraft Foods and the German government's GTZ have gotten involved, and now more than 3,000 cocoa growers in six communities in Ecuador are selling Rainforest Alliance Certified cocoa. And in 2007, 350 farms in Côte d'Ivoire (also known as the Ivory Coast) became the first in Africa to earn the Rainforest Alliance seal.

Labeling nuances

There are major differences between Rainforest Alliance Certified, "Fair Trade Certified," and "United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Certified Organic" chocolate. Rainforest Alliance Certified chocolate differs from Fair Trade Certified chocolate in that it aims to improve the manner in which farms are managed, rather than oversee the way chocolate is traded. The Rainforest Alliance doesn't set up parameters for prices or trading partnerships, but they do help certified farms connect with international markets. And while one of the goals of fair trade is to give farmers a guaranteed price for their products, most farmers with Rainforest Alliance certification are able to use it to garner a premium price for their cocoa. SAN standards also dictate a worker's right to earn at least the national minimum wage.

As to how the cocoa is tended, farms certified with the Rainforest Alliance seal use integrated pest management (IPM), which permits very selective, controlled use of agrochemicals as a last resort, while encouraging chemical-free farming. Agrochemicals prohibited by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the European Union aren't allowed, nor are chemicals listed on the Pesticide Action Network's "Dirty Dozen" list. While not certified organic, almost all of the farmers producing Rainforest Alliance Certified cocoa in Ecuador use no chemicals. These farmers have been able to raise production by as much as 150 percent through improved processing techniques.[3]

External links

• Rainforest Alliance - Sustainable Agriculture: Frequently Asked Questions
• Consumer Reports Greener Choices - eco-labels: Rainforest Alliance Certified
• Rainforest Alliance - Sweet Taste of Sustainability 2: The Rainforest Alliance's Sustainable Cocoa Program