Growing cacao in diverse agroforestry systems, rather than simply on a monoculture plantation, is a fantastic method for protection and regeneration of tropical rainforest ecosystems. The cacao harvest alone can provide enough cash for farmers to support them with a good living while they operate in harmony with and protect the diverse life of the rainforest.

Small Holder Farms, Not Plantations

Ceremonial cacao begins with the communities we work with to source our cacao. Unlike the majority of chocolate consumed globally, we don’t source from centralized plantations. We only buy from small-holder organic farms, typically 0.5 acre to 5.0 acres in size. To date we’ve sourced cacao from thousands of such small farms.

Sourcing from small farmers, often living in indigenous communities, allows us to have a far more wide-spread social impact than paying just a single plantation, and it supports and values traditional ways of life in a time during which many of the communities we work with are struggling with the influences of modern civilization.

Small farms such as the ones we purchase are stakeholders in the communities and ecosystem. As such we often find superior environmental stewardship on these farms, employing not just organic principles but regenerative permaculture principles actually improving the thriving of the land over time. This can look like tending to watersheds, building topsoil, or increasing biodiversity. Regeneration is how nature naturally is, human participation is usually quite minimal, as any human action is informed by many times more observation of the relationships already present in the ecosystem.

The cacao grown on these farms tends to be a locally distinct genetic varietal, sometimes with an heirloom designation, which our partners support with seedling propagation in small nurseries. Cacao is an understory tree, so it lends itself well to polyculture agroforestry systems producing abundant food staples and simultaneously offering ecosystem services such as habitat and buffer areas to intact rainforest areas.

REGENERATIVE CACAO GROWING BEST PRACTICES

  • intercropping with banana, plantain, avocado, coconut, corn, coffee, ginger, cardamom, allspice, chili, achiote, calaloo, jippi jappa, and medicinals

  • improving soil with bat guano collected from nearby caves

  • inoculating soil with beneficial mushrooms from leaf cutter ant mounds

  • chop and drop pruning, leaving all locally generated organic material on the farm to improve soil fertility

  • opening cacao pods for wet cacao removal on site, so cacao pods can improve soil fertility

  • pruning according to the moon cycle, during the waxing moon, when the cacao tree is most dormant

  • managing cacao pod diseases primarily with pruning to allow sufficient airflow and sunlight throughout canopy

  • agroforestry crop planning to provide young cacao trees with more shade and older cacao trees with less shade

  • planting additional food crops such as plantain and banana to keep local animals contently munching and sparing cacao pods

  • planting habitat for pollinator species to thrive, and for general beauty

  • planting cacao trees on steep slopes in a diamond shape pattern, to maximize soil retention

The Benefits of Organic Certification

From Ora's beginning, we’ve been deeply committed to using organic certified cacao. While it’s easy to purchase uncertified organic and while there is much work to be done beyond organic, the organic certification remains a powerful safeguard to ensure the practices we want to see implemented on the ground and in the supply chain. 

Some benefits you may not realize with certified organic cacao include crucial steps in the transport of cacao. Certified organic cacao is required to be shipped separately from other commodities, such as sacks of coffee or barrels of oil. The certification also ensures the cacao is not fumigated with toxic chemicals when it enters the country (unfortunately, cacao grown organically but not certified is almost always fumigated as a requirement by the USDA). 

There’s a lot to be done, especially at the farm level, beyond what the organic certification requires. This is why we began this article highlighting the many amazing regenerative cacao growing practices we’ve encountered (practices not required by organic). However, organic certification is still one of the best options, and the paper trail and care in processing it requires is extensive. New regenerative cacao certifications all require organic certification as a baseline. By creating demand for organic cacao, we are sending a market signal to cacao brokers to offer more organic origins, and we are supporting the upfront work of helping smallholder farmers get certified.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Ora Cacao USDA Organic certified?
Yes. All Ora Cacao products are USDA Organic certified. We source exclusively from small-holder certified organic farms — typically 0.5 to 5 acres — across six countries. Organic certification matters not just for pesticide-free cacao, but because it ensures critical supply chain steps: certified organic cacao must be shipped separately from other commodities and cannot be fumigated with toxic chemicals upon entering the US — fumigation which uncertified "organic" cacao almost always undergoes.

What is regenerative cacao farming?
Regenerative farming goes beyond organic by actively improving the land over time — building topsoil, increasing biodiversity, and enhancing ecosystem function rather than simply avoiding harm. The small-holder farmers we work with practice intercropping (banana, avocado, coconut, coffee, cardamom, medicinals), improving soil with bat guano and beneficial fungi from leaf-cutter ant mounds, using chop-and-drop pruning to return organic matter to the soil, and planting cacao in agroforestry systems serving as habitat buffers for intact rainforest. These practices reflect indigenous land stewardship knowledge going well beyond what organic certification requires.

Why does Ora Cacao source from small-holder farms instead of plantations?
Small-holder farms (0.5 to 5 acres) spread economic benefit across thousands of farming families rather than concentrating it in a single plantation. We've sourced from thousands of such farms to date across six countries. Beyond social impact, small-holder farms in indigenous communities tend to exhibit superior environmental stewardship — employing regenerative practices large centralized operations typically don't. The stake each family has in their land produces better outcomes for the soil, the ecosystem, and the cacao.

What is the difference between organic and regenerative cacao certifications?
Organic certification ensures no synthetic pesticides, required separate shipping, no fumigation, and verified supply chain documentation. Regenerative certifications (several are now emerging) build on top of organic and additionally verify active soil health improvement, watershed stewardship, biodiversity enhancement, and carbon sequestration practices. All current regenerative certifications require organic certification as a baseline prerequisite. Unfortunately most are not yet well suited for large networks of small farmers. The current certification requirements are built for large farmers and is cost prohibitive for networks of small farmers, so even though Ora Cacao employs extensive regenerative cacao practices, it is not certified.

Keep Exploring

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  • Cacao Genetics Explained

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