Better World Beans Closure Notice
If you are still in need of coffee please click here to purchase coffee from a similar project in Puerto Rico.
Better World Beans will cease coffee sales effective December 31, 2023. I want to thank you for your loyal support of Better World Beans over the years. Without you and your support we would not have been able to survive our launch years, the pandemic, inflation and everything in between. Thanks to you, we were able to continue to support small-scale coffee farming in the Dominican Republic for over 8 years.
Since Better World Beans started in 2015, our goal was to help small-scale family coffee farmers in the Dominican Republic earn a better living from their coffee and deliver that high quality coffee to customers who wanted to support the future of small-scale coffee farming. The idea sprung from Dominican coffee farmers who were struggling in the aftermath of the coffee rust disease that left them with a major loss in coffee harvest from 2012-2015. What I learned is that the economic and environmental conditions impacting small-scale family coffee farmers in a small mountain village of the Dominican Republic are affecting millions of rural communities and their growers across Latin America and Caribbean. While it may seem daunting to look at the macro picture of what is happening to small-scale farming in the Global South, I always found the strong relationships I had with these humble farmers as very centering. Working with them has taught me many incredible lessons from listening, being present, and what it means to build community. Along the journey to learn about how to farm coffee sustainably in mountainous areas, I have met some truly incredible and inspiring people that continue to shape and inspire me both personally and professionally.
Starting Better World Beans became a key accomplishment of my undergraduate experience at college and which took me to many places throughout the world to try to find ways to move farming towards more sustainable practices in the Dominican Republic. I came to the realization, influenced by many people who share a sustainable farming vision for rural communities, that to change farming, one has to roll up their sleeves and farm as well and engage young people who are the future of farming. Farmers everywhere are aging quickly and so working with youth is critical to ensure a bright farming future for rural communities. For many years, I tried to acquire some farmland in the Dominican Republic that would serve as a demonstration coffee farm and education center for farmers young and old so that we could together try out promising sustainable farming techniques and bring these experiences to the struggling small-scale family coffee farmer who needed them the most. Due to many obstacles outside of my control, I was unable to acquire land and started looking elsewhere. I ultimately looked towards the island next door, Puerto Rico. In 2018, after a scouting trip to the island in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria which tore the island apart, I felt a real sense and desire from the area’s farmers to return to the land and plant once again. Puerto Rico being a smaller island and more developed meant easier access to farming communities and farmland. Finding farmland and favorable financing options allowed me to acquire some land in Puerto Rico to develop what would become a nonprofit called the Monte Azul Foundation.
The farmland in Puerto Rico Monte Azul acquired was once a thriving coffee farm and is in a community that reminds me of Franco Bidó in the Dominican Republic, where BWB sourced its coffee. Later in 2018, I relocated to Puerto Rico to develop this farm and build this new nonprofit to train and equip local farmers with sustainable agricultural techniques that would be climate resilient and help rebuild a more equitable and just food system. Monte Azul has since taken off, we designed a program called The Academy of Sustainable Agriculture and Innovation which has trained more than 150 farmers in Puerto Rico and we’ve built out two demonstration farms to provide a training space for these farmers. Recently, Monte Azul launched a coffee brand with local Puerto Rican coffee that has that same heart and soul of Better World Beans. The coffee program supports the work of the Academy and its mission to incubate sustainable agriculture. If you are interested in still purchasing coffee and supporting similar work please consider purchasing coffee through Monte Azul Foundation on the webstore here which is now available for sale.
If you would like to continue to support Franco Bidó in the Dominican Republic please consider a donation to Education Across Borders, the nonprofit who brought me to the Dominican Republic originally in 2011 and who continues to fund education, clean water, and housing in Franco Bidó.
The heart and soul of Better World Beans lives on through Monte Azul Foundation. What started out as a bold idea to export coffee from the Dominican Republic and support small-scale farmers has evolved into a thriving nonprofit in Puerto Rico with a demonstration coffee farm. None of that would have been possible without your support. Many of you have supported Better World Beans since its inception and continue to support my work and for that I am incredibly grateful. Know that we have made an impact together and that we will continue to work towards a more sustainable future.
In gratitude,
Andrew
Founder, Better World Beans