Agriculture takes up half of all habitable land on Earth and generates nearly a third of global greenhouse gas emissions.

Mrs. Nouphi harvests ripe coffee cherries on her farm in Laos, transitioning to regenerative farming with Slow Forest to build a more sustainable future. © Slow/Saosavanh Ketmala

 

That's one-third. These numbers point to a system under strain. The way we produce food today is depleting natural resources and accelerating climate change. 

To meet the needs of a growing population while reducing environmental harm, we need a new approach. Regenerative agriculture offers a smarter, soil-friendly way forward—practices that restore the planet and support farmers.

Coffee, the world's most popular ritual, is particularly ripe for transformation. 

1. What is regenerative agriculture?

Regenerative agriculture is about healing the land as we farm it. Think disturbing the soil less, planting cover crops to lock carbon into the ground and integrating trees back into farming systems. When done right, it restores soil health, conserves water and captures carbon.

The potential is vast. Scaling regenerative practices from 15% to 40% of global farmland could remove 600 million tonnes of CO2 every year. It would also improve soil quality and water retention, delivering transformative benefits to the planet.

2. Why isn't everyone doing this? 

Despite its clear benefits, regenerative agriculture is growing at just 0.6% a year. 

The challenge lies in economics. Transitioning to sustainable practices often involves significant upfront costs and delayed returns—making it a difficult leap for smallholder farmers who are already stretched thin.

Scaling regenerative agriculture requires more than goodwill. Smallholder farmers need access to tools, incentives and resources that make the transition feasible and profitable. 

As the World Economic Forum (WEF) points out,  regenerative farming isn't scaling because it's not commercially viable for most farmers. The solution lies in creating systems where every player in the value chain shares responsibility.  

This includes:

• Agreeing on common metrics. Establish consistent ways to define and measure environmental outcomes, enabling better rewards for positive change.
• Building income from environmental benefits. Create markets that pay farmers for carbon sequestration, improved soil health and other ecosystem services.
• Sharing the cost of transition. Spread the financial burden across the value chain to reduce risks for farmers.
• Supportive government policies. Introduce measures that reward sustainable practices instead of reinforcing the status quo.
• Collaborative sourcing models. Businesses must go beyond yield-focused approaches and work together to support regenerative systems.

3. Why coffee?

Coffee isn't just a beverage—it's a livelihood for millions of smallholder farmers. But conventional coffee farming has come at a steep environmental cost.

Between 2001 and 2015, nearly two million hectares of forest we replaced by coffee plantations—1.1 million hectares for robusta coffee and 0.8 million hectares for arabica coffee, says the World Resources Institute.

The environmental toll extends beyond deforestation, impacting biodiversity, water overuse and soil health. In regions like Laos and Vietnam, commercial coffee expansion is depleting agro-biodiversity and threatening farmers' long-term resilience.

4. What does regenerative coffee look like?

Regenerative coffee farming moves away from sun-grown monocultures toward shade-grown systems that mimic natural forests:

• Healthier soil. Reduces reliance on synthetic fertilizers while enhancing fertility.
• Shade trees. Captures carbon, fosters biodiversity and maintain thriving ecosystems.
• Diversified income. Allow farmers to grow fruits, nuts or other crops alongside coffee, increasing resilience and creating new revenue streams (FAO, 2023) 

5. How do we scale this?

Scaling regenerative coffee farming requires action on multiple fronts:

• Governments. Develop policies that reward farmers for sustainable practices
• Business. Source coffee regeneratively and ensure fair payment to farmers
• Consumers. Support brands committed sustainability through direct regenerative practices or certifications

The solution to both the climate emergency and the coffee crisis lies in the soil—quite literally. Farmers are stewards of this vital resource and must be incentivized and rewarded accordingly. While farmers are driving the change, businesses like us have a key role in scaling up regenerative agriculture. By aligning incentives and increasing demand for regeneratively grown crops, we can send clear signals for the adoption of sustainable farming practices. However, individual efforts alone won't suffice.

We, as businesses, must collaborate across value chains and with farmers to support this transition. Only through collective action can we create a sustainable future for both coffee and the planet.