The little green frog seal on coffee, tea, and bananas belongs to the Rainforest Alliance, founded in 1987 by Daniel Katz. As of 2023 it covered more than 70 countries, over seven and a half million farmers and workers, and more than 5.7 million hectares. After merging with the Dutch program UTZ in 2018, it rolled out the 2020 Sustainable Agriculture Standard with two tiers: core requirements such as ecosystem protection, a ban on transgenic crops, protective gear, and an assess and address system for child and forced labor, plus improvement requirements tracked through smart meters that let each farm set local targets.

Unlike Fairtrade, the Rainforest Alliance has never guaranteed a minimum price, a gap critics such as sociologist Daniel Jaffee stress by pointing to the early 2000s coffee crash, when prices fell from about $1.20 to roughly 50 cents a pound. It added a mandatory sustainability differential, including $70 per metric ton of cocoa from mid 2022. Labeling rules went from 30% certified content in the mid 2000s to 90% or mass balance today. Then came the 2020 revolt, when banana growers in Ecuador, Costa Rica, Colombia, and Guatemala said they paid for compliance while European supermarkets pushed prices down.

• Herbs need only 50% certified content and palm oil 30%, with the percentage printed on the pack.
• Forestry and tourism certification went to Preferred by Nature in 2018.
• A 2024 report sets a goal of 100 million farmers in regenerative practices by 2030.
• A 2014 WASH lawsuit over Chiquita suppliers in Guatemala was dismissed in 2016, and a suit also naming Hershey was dismissed in 2023.
• The banana growers said only 2% of their demands were heard in drafting the new standard.