How Craft Beer Is Turning the Tables as Pesticide Risks Mount

When the coalition of Green America, Beyond Pesticides, Public Research Interest Group (PIRG), People & Pollinators Action Network and Re:wild Your Campus announced the “SAVE BEER!” campaign recently, they didn’t simply add another feel-good headline to the growing list of brewery sustainability efforts. 

They issued a challenge to the major beer players, with the substance of the challenge squarely aimed at raw-material sourcing, pesticide use, supply-chain transparency and farm ecosystems.

The core ingredients of beer — barley, hops, and water — depend on healthy soils, functioning ecosystems and responsible farming. The campaign noted that widespread pesticide use (including glyphosate, 2,4-D) is a risk to farmworker health, pollinators, water systems and ultimately ingredient quality and availability. While craft brewers often market themselves as “ingredient-driven” and “small-batch”, this doesn’t automatically insulate them from upstream risks: if crop systems fail, or quality falls, ingredient costs or availability may shift dramatically. The “SAVE BEER!” campaign crystallises what many in the craft space feel: sustainability isn’t just about recycling, waste reduction or solar panels—it’s about securing the very agricultural foundation of brew supply.

But many craft breweries aren’t starting from zero. For example:

• Certification programs such as the Craft Maltsters Guild’s Craft Malt Certified Seal™, the Salmon‑Safe program, and the B Corporation (B Corp) benchmark are explored as tools for maltsters and breweries to signal responsible sourcing and operations.
• Brewer has highlighted how brewers are using packaging innovation, measuring energy/water use, and tracking performance while more broad analyses show that craft breweries are very well suited to sustainability because of their smaller scale, closer ties to local farms/communities and ingredient-centric identity.

The “SAVE BEER!” initiative provides a polished lens for what sustainability looks like  going forward, but it also raises tough questions for craft beer operations (and the broader industry). That includes supply-chain transparency, looking at quality risk ties to environmental risk and working to get broader certifications. But they are no silver bullet.

Here’s how craft breweries can use this moment:

• Use the “SAVE BEER!” campaign as an impetus to audit your own sourcing and farming relationships. Even if you don’t currently claim “pesticide-free hops/barley”, you can begin by talking to your suppliers about IPM, soil health, pollinator habitats and chemical-inputs.
• Integrate transparency into your communications: for example, an annual sustainability summary that says: “Here’s our hop supply, here’s the farm partner, here’s the chemical-input audit we ran, here’s what we’re doing next year.”
• Consider aligning with certifications or member programs (e.g., 1% for the Planet, B Corp) but don’t stop there. Use them as frameworks—not the end point.
• Leverage your craft-scale advantage: Your size enables closer supplier engagement, farm visits, custom contracts, ingredient stories. Use that to differentiate from mass-market brewers.
• Make sustainability part of the brand story. Whether in taproom communications, packaging, social media, or distributor sales pitches. Consumers and out-of-home buyers are increasingly asking for proof of environmental stewardship; craft breweries can and should lead.

The “SAVE BEER!” campaign reminds us all that the promise of locally made  beer with great ingredients, local farms, and meaningful relationships carries an important responsibility. It’s no longer enough to just brew well and distribute well; the upstream conditions matter: the soil health, the hop growers, the barley farms, the water table. 

Breweries that proactively engage in farming‐ecosystem stewardship, traceable sourcing, and transparent communication will not only protect their ingredient supply and cost stability, but also strengthen their brand, deepen their consumer trust, and position themselves as leaders in an industry rewriting what success means.