In 2012, we purchased a small farm in the Tropical Andes of Peru, focused on growing cacao as part of a food forest. We quickly became friends with neighboring farmers and realized we could make a bigger impact working together. Through listening to farmers, we learned about how decades of exploitive supply chains have fueled the cycle of monoculture farming and ecosystem collapse . We set forth to develop a more equitable supply chain that supports regenerative, traditional farming practices as an alternative economic path for farmers to improve their livelihoods, while restoring the forest, soil and water systems. Over the past decade , this has involved working with farmers across the region to implement a better way of doing business. Our little farm became a learning laboratory for growing regenerative food forest across other neighboring farms, and the community came together to work more collectively through the village hub. We have grown our business from the inside out, through starting and ending with the lives of farmers, and focusing on quality from seed to finished product. We are excited to directly bring our single origin, ceremonial grade cacao to the collective consciousness and pallets of mindful consumers.
As small-holder farmers are not paid equitably by commodity prices, and struggle to meet their basic needs, they are often driven to use destructive monoculture agriculture practices to survive. As an alternative to this extractive economic model, we began to work with farmers to develop a regenerative hub as a way for them to collectively proces and store native superfoods, especially high quality, regenerative, ceremonial-grade cacao. Through focusing on quality, centralized production, farmers are able to gain a higher price for their product and receive ongoing support on using regenerative practices, while creating value added business opportuntiies/ jobs. The regenerative hub approach was developed by Dr. Willie Smits in Indonesia and broadly defined as tropical reforestation projects centered around a centralized zero waste, micro- value added processing facility.
In the tropical andes, the village hub approach serves as a key solution for farmers to collectively increase the value of superfoods and propagate native tree species across farms. Early on, when we realized farmers lacked the infrastructure needed to consistently ferment and dry cacao (a process that takes around 15 days), we focused on developing a system for the farmers to transport , batch ferment, sun dry and test cacao ( for contaminants and heavy metals) for each harvest. This ensures our cacao consistently meets the highest quality standards and our consumers know what they are consuming.
We look forward to share more about our approach and cacao. Over 2023, we worked with around ten farmers to grow criollo and trinutaria varieties following regenerative practices for growing cacao as part of a food forest. Over this year, we are working on expanding the membership of farmers that are committed to regenerative farming practices.
At the core, Cloud Forest works in reciprocity with the farmers and the land. We work in humility to our farming family, our mother earth, and all beings . We are so grateful to bring this cacao to you and your community, as we embrace our shared heart through each ritual, and ceremony, with life as the main one. We look forward to invite you on this journey, invite you to our farms, as we share and learn together.
Cacao is first chopped with a machete and the fruit is added to 5 gallon buckets called ‘baba’, which is transported the same day to the village hub.
Initial construction of batch fermenters and technical assistance (2016)
Solar dryers at regenerative hub
Criollo cacao propagation (2016)
Each harvest is batch fermented and dried to ensure quality and consistency (2023)
Farmers and partners with Collective Bean