Co-ops, Equal Exchange, and the Struggle for Fair Trade

View from the coffee fields of Las Pilas

An Offer We Couldn’t Refuse
In the fall of 2008, Bloomingfoods was contacted by the Equal Exchange Co-op, known by us all as purveyors of fine and fairly traded coffee, tea, and chocolate. Their offer: would we like to send a representative on a spring tour they were organizing to Chiapas state in southern Mexico to visit the warehouses, processing facility, and farms of the CESMACH (Campesinos Ecologicos de la Sierra Madre de Chiapas S. C.) Co-op, from which it procures a significant portion of its Mexican coffee. They’d make the arrangements; they’d provide guides and translators; they’d hold our hands in the event of a screaming case of Montezuma’s revenge; we just needed to be there, with open minds and relatively sound bodies, anxious to learn, and with a willingness to share what we witnessed with folks back home. Without hesitation, we responded, “yes, of course”!   And I was lucky enough to get the nod.  What follows is an account of the trip, part mere travelogue but my best effort to share with you both some of the most significant and defining details of coffee production for Equal Exchange and, more importantly, the inestimable role which co-ops are making in the world of agricultural commerce and social justice.

Bloomingfoods likes Equal Exchange. A lot. Equal Exchange is dedicated to buying its coffee, tea, chocolate, and other products from cooperatives of small farmers, by which decisions concerning both business and community affairs are made democratically. In turn, Equal Exchange sells much of its product to organizations such a Bloomingfoods, itself a member-owned cooperative. By trading directly with grower co-ops, Equal Exchange eliminates the multiple layers of middlemen common in the coffee trade, ensuring that a larger percent of the consumer’s dollars reaches the people who do the hard, skilled work of growing and harvesting fine coffee.  Its commitment to “fair trade” coffees and the folks producing them is no better reflected than in the articles of their agreement with grower co-ops, such as CESMACH. These are:

1) To pay a fair, previously agreed upon price. This price will always be at least $0.05 above market price and will never sink below $1.56 per pound. Due to the extremely high quality of CESMACH coffee, their growers typically receive even more. But fair trade is about more than mere price per pound. Thus:

2) Equal Exchange offers its growers a reliable long-term relationship which they can count on year after year.

3) Equal Exchange offers pre-harvest financing, an absolutely critical condition for the poor indigenous farmers struggling to survive and raise their families through subsistence agriculture and the production of coffee.

4) Equal Exchange pays a “social premium” above the base price, this money to be used by the grower cooperative to invest in other socio-economic development projects.  In exchange for these considerations, Equal Exchange insists that:

5) The coffee production be conducted in an environmentally sustainable manner, and

6) That the grower co-op operates in a democratic, politically empowering fashion that respects the rights and interests of all its members.

Through such arrangements, Equal Exchange has arguably done more than any other organization in the last 15 years to change the way coffee is grown, bought, and sold around the globe. Its commitment to fairly traded products, organic, sustainable production practices, and innovative systems of agricultural commerce is a non-pareil in the world of international agriculture.  Bloomingfoods is thus delighted to be a leading outlet for the products it offers.

Preliminaries
The goals of our trip were several, but they revolved around giving representatives from seven selected co-ops a chance to actually see and thus more intimately understand the conditions under which coffee is grown and processed in southern Mexico. It was also hoped that we would gain a fuller appreciation for the role which coffee plays in the political, social, and economic lives of producers, and also to personally express to the growers how much their efforts and their coffee are appreciated.  Through such trips, little by little, Equal Exchange is doing its part to forge stronger connections between the growers and the stores and customers who purchase their coffee.

Logistically, our trip would consist of three principle stages:  first, via multiple flights and a bus ride, we would make our way to San Cristobal de las Casas, a beautiful old colonial city in the heart of the state of Chiapas.  From there we would make a half-day drive to Jaltenango, a town of 30,000 inhabitants, and the site of the warehouses and offices of CESMACH (Campesinos Ecologicos de la Sierra Madre de Chiapas S. C.). Finally, we would make the long haul to Las Pilas, a village of 33 families that was so small and so remotely located in the buffer zone of the El Triunfo Biosphere Reserve that I was unable to find it on even the best map of the region that I could reference.  Ah, it smelled to high heaven of adventure!

Phyllis, Nick, and Lilla

And so it was that at the crack of dawn on March 1st, I flew out of Indianapolis International, touched down briefly at Sam Houston, and then flew on to Mexico City. There I was united with my traveling companions. Our number was ten: enough to ensure lots of camaraderie, support, intellectual exchange, and fun but without being too unwieldy. Phyllis “Felicia” Robinson, from Equal Exchange, a former resident of Latin America and a veteran of many such trips, was our leader. She was assisted in this by her colleagues, Lilla Woodham and Nicholas Reid. The co-op reps were an interesting mix of ages and professional assignments. In addition to myself (the geezer of the group), these included: Kevin Quinn, Produce Manager at People’s Co-op in Ann Arbor; Don Pierce, I.T. Systems Manager at Harvest Co-op in Boston; Rita York, Assistant General Manager of Community Mercantile in Lawrence;  Margaret Mills, Grocery Manager at People’s Food Co-op in Lacrosse, Stephanie Catlett, Marketing Coordinator/Newsletter Editor for New Pioneer Co-op in Iowa City, IA, and Kathy Piedl, Wellness Manager at Hungry Hollow Co-op, Chestnut Ridge, NY. Following a brief layover in Mexico City, we all piled into a plane for a short flight to the Chiapas state capital, Tuxtla Guttierez. There we were met by a representative of CESMACH, who herded us into a bus for the hour drive to San Cristobal.

From the moment we drove out of the Tuxtla airport, the adventure was begun in earnest. In a light rain and howling wind, we had a wild ride on the new highway that connects Tuxtla and San Cristobal. Most drivers–including our own–made full use of the two wide two lanes of the highway, honking, tail-gating, flashing their bright lights, braking and accelerating fiercely, weaving from lane to lane as they raced up and down and around the winding road. I sat by an open window in a reverie, my arm hanging out, reveling in the soft rain, wonderful mountain air, and exhilarating ride.

Thanks to the preliminary work done by our Equal Exchange guides, the patrona of the Hotel Pasada Isabel was expecting us, and she and an assistant quickly prepared a simple meal of eggs, tortillas, fruit, and tea. The meal was hot and bountiful, for which we were grateful. San Cristobal sits at almost 7000″, and when the sun sets the temperature drops precipitously. In addition, the public areas of the hotel were almost completely open to the elements and the rooms themselves were unheated.  Consequently, we huddled, somewhat chilled, over our meals wearing the few articles of heavy clothing we’d brought. We were relieved at the end of the meal to discover our beds covered in warm blankets, and at the end of a very long day of travel we all happily fell into sleep.

Gustavo Castro Soto

The next day was passed mostly in meetings. First our entire group assembled in the chilly hotel meeting/dining room for an introduction by Phyllis, Nick, and Lilla to the history and goals of Equal Exchange, as well as to review the rough itinerary we would follow on the trip. Clearly, a lot of planning had gone into the trip, but we’d be doing a lot of seat-of-the-pants adjusting as we went along. This concluded, we took our first walk through the scenic streets of San Cristobal to the offices of Otro Mundos AC/Amigos de la Tierra. Here international policy analyst, Gustavo Castro Soto met us. For the next two hours, Senior Castro presented to us a fascinating, albeit somewhat discouraging, socio-economic history of Mexico and Chiapas, with a special focus on the environmental degradation being wreaked by inappropriate agricultural, mining, and development practices. It was a tale dark in corrupt governmental action, misguided international treaties, and environmental and human abuses. Yet in the end it was not without hope that some positive change is happening, in part through the work of co-ops such as Equal Exchange and CESMACH.

Street view from our hotel

Following our meeting with Soto, we ate a late lunch, convened another meetings to prepare for the following day’s trip to Jaltenango, and then indulged ourselves in a brief outing for supplies.  This was our last chance to check email at any of the innumerable email cafes that littered the city and to visit the large open-air market for additional parkas and scarves for evening air we now realized was colder than we’d expected. The mountain winds continued to chill us, and we were all anxious to acquire a few extra garments to ensure that we didn’t freeze in the mountain village to which we were headed. And what a great opportunity it proved. For it allowed us to wander and dicker among the scores of indigenous craftsmen vending their wares in the courtyard of one of Chiapas’ larger churches.

But this is all by way of mere prelude. For the real story of the trip is the story of the CESMACH co-op, and the difference it is making in the lives of its member-farmers and in the stability and health of the fragile biosphere in which they live. Now confidently decked out in new woolen and heavy cotton scarves, parkas, leggings, and gloves, we were anxious to be on our way.

CESMACH: THE Co-op Difference

CESMACH Staff

Arising early the next morning, we piled sleepily into a van and headed into the real boondocks, driving through a landscape dusty and brown in the waning days of the dry season, passing through quiet, colorful villages coming slowly to life in the warming sun of morning. After about four hours, we arrived in Jaltenango and the headquarters and warehouses of CESMACH. We proceeded immediately to the CESMACH offices, where we were met and warmly greeted by several members of the staff and board.  Our day then began in earnest, with 10 intense hours filled with meetings and with watching coffee being received, tested and evaluated for quality and condition.

The meetings began with a review of the history of coffee growing in the region. Prior to the establishment of CESMACH, we learned, life for the coffee growers in the villages was arduous and largely without hope of improvement. Originally subsistence farmers, villagers in the area had gradually begun introducing coffee into their mix of crops, hoping in that way to diversify and to develop a source of income for the purchase the myriad consumer goods and services they could not locally grow or provide.  But their isolated location, poverty, and competition from competing growers in other regions rendered even this a dubious pursuit. Their farming practices at the time were purely conventional, including the use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides and the removal of canopy species and understory to permit the planting of corn, beans, and other food crops.

The addition of coffee to the mix did nothing to improve conditions, environmentally or economically. The growers simply planted coffee trees on the steep mountain slopes, sprayed them with whatever cheap synthetic pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers they could afford, then hoped that the trees and coffee berries could withstand the fierce summer storms to which the region is subject long enough to mature and be harvested. Once this harvest was picked, the growers then waited for the arrival of the “coyotes,” middlemen who systematically prowled the region during the harvest season, negotiating coffee deals with individual growers. The growers, being as they were perpetually broke and without recourse to other funding, had no option but to sell their precious beans for the pittance offered. Thus was the environment abused and the farmers plunged deeper into a cycle of poverty, weariness, and despair.

Finally, broke and disgusted, the growers determined to do something different, and in 1994 they banded together and the CESMACH cooperative was born.  With the creation of CESMACH, producers put themselves into a position to begin operating under a different system. But of what would that system consist. What would be its methods, its processes, its goals?

Among the first decisions made was that growing practices would be organic and fully sustainable.  As it is with organic farmers everywhere, protection of the land, itself, was immediately elevated to primary importance.  So, not only are synthetic pesticides and fertilizers banned, but many additional practices have been introduced. For instance, in order to minimize erosion, the fields are painstakingly terraced, a particularly difficult feat in a region that is so heavily forested and exceedingly steep.  Further, rather than merely discarding waste materials—chiefly pulp and wastewater—special efforts are made to compost or otherwise purify them prior to release. And instead of removing the forest canopy, it is carefully cultivated to ensure that it shields the coffee from the intense sun and the slopes from the driving rains.

But the production of exquisite, shade-grown organic coffee is only the first goal of CESMACH, and not so much an end unto itself as a means of achieving a great deal more. First, working co-operatively under the umbrella of CESMACH put the growers in a position to negotiate much better, “fairer” selling arrangements with buyers. To this end, the co-op rather than the individual farmers now negotiate crop sales, and selling in larger quantities vastly enhances the leverage they can bring to bear. This was further facilitated by the construction of warehouse and storage facilities,  Now, instead of briefly holding and selling their coffee out of their homes and villages, the growers consolidate and hold their coffee in an efficient warehouse system until fair prices can be negotiated. The strength and flexibility this gives the villagers can be no better expressed than in “Coffee’s David and Goliath Story,” which describes the initially devastating but ultimately empowering incident which led to the partnership which now exists between CESMACH and Equal Exchange. Through such measures, CESMACH works to achieve a greater measure of prosperity for the villagers and with that the preservation of the local culture.

Endangered Horned Guan

Another very important consideration to CESMACH is that coffee cultivation methods contribute not only to the health of the coffee fields, themselves, but also to that of the fragile environment in which they are located. Many of the villages belonging to CESMACH are located in the periphery of the El Triunfo Biosphere Reserve. This is a an area rich in rare and unique plant and animals species, many of which are threatened with extinction, chiefly due to habitat destruction. Growing coffee under a natural canopy, carefully terraced, and using organic methods clearly produces a superior coffee but also protects the natural environment.  Recycling of the berry pulp into compost and filtering in deep wells the acidic water created in fermenting the coffee beans further contribute to the preservation of this delicate biosphere.

Beyond environmental conservation and organic coffee production, CESMACH has also launched a variety of social development projects: community-owned chicken production operations, organic fruit orchards, expanded composting activities, and promotion of public health awareness on issues such as cervical cancer. All these efforts are directed not only toward diversifying incomes but also to enhancing life in general for all the villagers. Octavio Carbajal of CESMACH expresses it thus: “We are conscious of the fact that we will not see economic or environmental change if we do not first make changes in our society, recover and strengthen human values. In CESMACH that is our priority.”

CESMACH Warehouse

Having thus learned something of the philosophy and goals which guide CESMACH, we were very excited to visit the warehouse and receiving areas, and to see those philosophies put into action.  Just as our meetings with our CESMACH hosts explored the co-ops commitment to wise, sustainable agricultural and economic practices, so did our visit to the warehouse operations permit us to witness the extraordinary care taken to ensure that the co-op buys and sells only the finest coffees.  The basic process is simple but the standards are rigorous.

Here’s how they go about it.

Inspecting coffee

Upon the arrival of a grower with his crop, samples of the beans are extracted from each of the 100+ pound burlap bags in which they are delivered. The sample beans are visually inspected for flaws, their moisture content is analyzed, and they are dechaffed to determine the percentage of chaff to bean. If the quality is not up to the highest standards, the beans are rejected outright (later, in the fields, we would see the pains to which the farmers go to prevent this costly outcome); if it is too wet, it will be purchased, but a lesser price will be paid since it will be necessary to further dry the beans in the sun on the large cement slab outside the building. If accepted as is, the farmer’s entire delivery is then carried in, loaded on to a large mechanical scale, weighed, then stacked in the area in which it will be held until it is sent for processing at a facility owned and operated jointly by CESMACH and three other co-ops. And the grower receives payment according to the previously reached agreement. From the processing facility, the coffee is  shipped to Europe, Asia, or the United States. Only then, in facilities such as those at Equal Exchange, will the coffee finally be carefully roasted, vacuum-sealed, then shipped to outlets such as Bloomingfoods for sale to consumers.

Stacking coffee on to scale

It is worth noting as an aside at this point that until very recently, CESMACH had no facilities for actually roasting coffee or a plan for selling it in Mexico. Indeed, throughout our trip we noticed that good, richly brewed coffee was a rarity, a luxury not available to most people. Recently, however, CESMACH has purchased a roaster and is working diligently to develop at least a small local market for its exceptional coffee.

And so a long and fascinating day passed, until by 10:00 pm we were starving and exhausted yet anxious to embark for the village and coffee fields early the next morning. Our gracious CESMACH hosts relieved us of our hunger and weariness by feting us at a local café, complete with live marimba music, hot and spicy local cuisine, and cool Coronas. By the time we collapsed in our beds around 1:00 a.m. we were indeed ready for sleep.

Bright and early we were again up, grabbed a quick breakfast, and then loaded our bags on to the roof of a CESMACH van that appeared in timely fashion to take us into the mountains. We were told that once the wet season hit, only 4-wheel drive vehicles even had a chance of making the journey, but now, before the summer rains had blown in, the van could make it.  The ride was long and rough, passing for a while through dry, lowland country, roughly farmed or grazed, with an occasional small village strung along the road.  As we proceeded, the pavement became poorer and more broken, the villages more widely spaced. Finally, the paved road went left and a dirt path forked right. We took the fork, and for the next hour and half we drove a circuitous route ever higher, higher into the mountains, the slopes becoming ever more lushly vegetated and the road more frequently washed out all or in part (still part of the aftermath of hurricane Stan, which struck the area in 2005).  And so we drove into an increasingly remote country until finally, rounding yet another bend, we saw our destination, the village of Las Pilas.

Las Pilas and the Growing of Organic, Shaded Coffee

The setting of Las Pilas is absolutely stunning, so far up the side of the mountain that we could look down hundreds of feet to see vultures circling, themselves hundreds of feet above the valley floor. And yet the mountains continue to rise up high above the village, beautifully enrobed in a mixed canopy of broad-leaf deciduous, pine, and palm trees. The village itself consists of thirty or so homes. Most that I entered were about 15′ x 20″ or 25′, consisted of only one or two rooms, were constructed of mud bricks, had cement floors (a recent improvement from dirt floors, we were told), and tin roofs raised above the walls to facilitate air flow. I saw only one refrigerator, but somewhere in each house was invariably a hand-cranked grinder for grinding corn and a corner space devoted to a small hearth where a wood fire served to cook the ubiquitous corn tortillas and other dishes. There was electricity, but not much: most of the houses were very dark, lit only by a single, very dim bulb, and even that was turned off shortly after dark. I saw no indoor plumbing: washing was done outside, and there seemed to be toilet facilities at about every three houses. These consisted of a toilet beside a cistern full of water. After using the toilet, one simply dipped a bucket of water, poured it boldly into the toilet, and let gravity carry it down a drain to, where?

Las Pilas home interior

Upon our arrival, the villagers gradually came out from their houses to meet us. After dropping our bags in a nearby home, we proceeded to the village school. There we met with representatives of most of the 17 families who are members of CESMACH, introducing ourselves, speaking a bit about why we were there, and expressing to them the high value placed on their coffee by our customers back home. This was actually quite an interesting endeavor, given that most of these folks rarely venture to a town and have no real conception of our co-op groceries. Still, they seemed impressed, albeit a bit confused, by the fact that Americans would travel so far simply to observe and learn about their coffee growing activity. From them, in turn, we began to learn first-hand of what that activity consisted.

Path to the coffee fields

Climate, terrain, grinding poverty and utter dependence on man, donkey, and nature for almost all energy input render coffee production in the mountains of Chiapas a manual, arduous, and very precarious vocation.  Those same conditions, together with major doses of incredible ingenuity and tenacity, also make it possible for the villagers to produce some of the finest coffee in the world.

Hand holding coffee branch

First, let’s talk field locations. There’s virtually no flat land in Las Pilas, and the orientation and vegetation of the slopes immediately surrounding the village are unsuited for coffee productions. Consequently, to our surprise, we learned that most of the “fields” are accessible only via a 1/4 hr to 1 hr hike along some of the narrowest and most precipitous trails I have ever walked.  We were hard pressed to keep pace with our village guides as they led us to the fields.  And by the time we arrived, we felt much more like resting than picking. But picking was what we were there to do, to experience, if only for an hour or so, for it was early March and the tail end of harvest season.  The last berries needed to be picked. This was actually the 3rd or 4th picking of the trees this season, in this way ensuring that the majority of the berries were picked at the peak of ripeness. Ours was the final picking of the season, and so we were instructed to pick all remaining berries, regardless of ripeness. Why? Because this coffee is grown under purely organic methods, without pesticides, herbicides, and other synthetic chemicals. Unpicked berries, either left on the trees or fallen to the ground, attract insects and disease, and so they must be removed from the fields. As we were to see in the next stage, the berries that were not entirely ripe would be sorted out, processed and sold, but not for Equal Exchange coffee. They would not be hauled to the CESMACH warehouse. Think rather of the wandering coyotes and of any of the popular supermarket brands with which most of us grew up on.

Sorting and Processing

Basket of beautiful coffee berries

After picking for little more than an hour, our group of 5 or 6 pickers had managed to assemble in our baskets three or four pounds of berries. Our hosts laughingly told us we’d need to pick up the pace a bit if we didn’t want to starve.  Four pounds, maybe. About $8 worth! After all that picking, and this doesn’t include all the work necessary to produce those berries: the planting, terracing, spreading of compost…the hours spend walking back and forth between the village and fields.  It was a shock. Our first tangible lesson in how hard these folks work to eke out a living.  And yet we were reminded, the price they earn through CESMCH is more than is paid by the coyotes to the growers not members of CESMACH.

After picking, the berries are poured on a tarp and the green and otherwise obviously bad specimens discarded. Again, these are sold to the coyotes for use in poorer general market coffees seen on supermarket shelves.

Rita skimming off the bad beans

Next, the “good,” ripe berries are poured into a large concrete sorting tank. Gravity and a ¾” hose stretched a half a mile or so up into the mountains then bring water to the tank. No pumps, no wells: just a slender hose and gravity. We watched in some amazement as the tank slowly filled with water and most of the berries sank. These, we were told, were good, solid berries, inside which both beans would be good. Others, however, floated to the top and were scooped off in a basket. Upon examination, we found that hail or insects had damaged all these berries, so that at least one of the two beans inside was bad. These berries, like the one ones previously sorted out, would also be sold to the coyotes.

Farmer depulping his berries

After discarding all the “floaters,” the drain plug at the bottom of one end of the tank is partially pulled, allowing water and beans to flow down a pipe toward another tank, the so-called “fermentation tank.” At this point, more labor occurs. Much more. The cherries must be depulped, the process whereby the beans contained in the berries are separated from the pulp and husks. This task is performed, like all other work in this neck of the woods, purely by hand. There is no electricity in this remote location, and the villagers eschew even small gasoline motors. Instead, they stand for hours, laboriously turning the crank as the coffee flows down. We all took a turn at the crank, and about 5 minutes was enough for us. The farmers stand there for hours at a time, turning, turning, turning…and this after a long day of picking.

As the coffee passes through the depulper, the husks and pulp pour on to the ground. They will be hauled off and composted. The beans, on the other hand, flow into the fermenting tank where they are first rinsed and then permitted to ferment for about a day. Fermentation is thought to accentuate the body and flavor of the coffee beans, but it must be done with great care because if the beans ferment for even a little too long they will be spoiled and an entire season of labor will have been for nothing.

Coffee being raked and dried

Standing there, looking at the wet, fermenting coffee, I was moved to ask the obvious question, “What do you do with all this wet coffee when it is fully fermented”?  The reply, appalling. “Oh, we put it into bags and haul it back to the village.” Yes, the wet coffee is loaded into burlap bags, then hauled by man or donkey back along the long, torturous track to the village. Ugh!

The wealthier families in Las Pilas have concrete drying patios outside their houses; poorer families had only tarps. On to these they pour their wet coffee, and for several days the woman and young children spread and rake it in the sun, turning it over and over to ensure that it dries evenly, thoroughly. When the coffee has been dried down to 12% moisture and a thin shell called parchment encapsulates each coffee bean, the producers pull the coffee off of the patios, return it to the burlap bags, then store it under cover until a truck can be found to make the four-hour trip to the warehouse in Jaltenango where it will be received and tested as I described above. And so the harvest is completed.

Fair Trade?
And that, in very brief, is an account of our trip, of the work of CESMACH and Equal Exchange in Chiapas, and of the nature of coffee production on an organic, shaded, terraced CESMACH farm in Las PIlas. Inspiring work, dogged work, yet work in which the folks at CESMACH, at Equal Exchange, and at Bloomingfoods all believe very strongly, for it embraces and attempts to harmonize the best of food, community, sustainability, and social justice.

And thus we return full circle to the primary theme and issue that took us to Chiapas in the first place: “Fair trade.” Is there fairness in this arrangement?  You decide. The farmer, using the most primitive manual methods can produce only a small amount of coffee, for which he is paid about $2 per pound in Jaltenango. If he endeavors to expand his production, the need for speed in the harvest forces him to pay hired help, thereby reducing his margin.  By the time the coffee has been hauled to Jaltenango, stored, hauled to the processing facility outside town, stored again, trucked to Vera Cruz and shipped to Equal Exchange facilities in Massachusetts, roasted, placed in vacuum-packed bags, then shipped to our stores, it’s price has gone to $10 per pound. The indigenous farmer on a remote hillside in Las Pilas has difficulty imagining all these processing stages, of fully grasping the complexity and expense inherent in international commerce. He sees only the endless hours he works to produce a few pounds of coffee for which he is paid $2 per pound yet which ultimately sells for $10 per pound. And he asks how this can be regarded as “fair,” for it is barely enough to provide his family with the essentials for life. And so they said to us as we left them there on their hillside, “You see now how hard we work. You see how poor we are. You taste how good the coffee is. Please pay us more”!  Yet in like fashion, a shopper in Bloomingfoods sees $9.99 per pound for Equal Exchange coffee and asks, how can this be “fair,” for it is $4 more per pound than the “coyote coffee” he knows is being sold in supermarkets. And so those customers say to us, “It costs too much. It is not fair. Please charge us less.”

Las Pilas donkey

There are no obvious and easy solutions to this situation, of course. Not if we desire the best possible coffee, and that it be produced without damage to the delicate environments in which it is grown, and that the men and women who produce it be able to earn a decent living without us having to pay $20 per pound. We present our observations from this little fact-finding adventure only to heighten the awareness of our customers, just as the experience heightened our own; and so that when you, the reader, walk through our polished and modern stores and see the coffee resting so brown and perfect in our bulk bins, maybe, just maybe, it will evoke in your mind’s eye the image of a patient, enduring farmer slowly leading a donkey laden with bags of soggy coffee beans up a dirt trail toward home as the sun sets behind the mountains, and the “price per pound” you see on our sign may indeed seem a little more, well, “fair.”

For more information about Equal Exchange and Fair Trade visit www.equalexchange.coop and www.SmallFarmersBigChange.coop.  And if your Spanish is up to it, check out the CESMACH site.

CIEPAC has been an organizational ally of Equal Exchange for many years.  We have tremendous respect for their investigative research and analysis, and for the popular education work they carry out, both in the indigenous farming communities of Chiapas, as well as with international audiences.  They have provided highly informative and insightful talks to the groups we bring to Chiapas which provide valuable context to help frame the extremely difficult situation facing small farmers and rural communities in the region.   

Please join us in solidarity with those in Mexico who are actively struggling for the economic, political, social and resource rights of small farmer communities.  Mexican officials need to know that we will not stand by while these human rights abuses continue.

Nikhil Aziz, Executive Director of Grassroots International, is disseminating the following letter which describes the current situation and asks for our response.  Please take a moment to read the letter and send your email to Mexican officials.

Dear Friends,

Human rights and community leaders in Mexico continue to experience threats – including death threats. They ask for help from global activists to protect their lives and their community work.

Current threats follow previous repression, including the unjust prosecution of local organizers of the Civil Resistance against the high cost of energy in the southern state of Campeche.  Last December, in response to an emergency action, letters of solidarity with Sara Lopez and Joaquin Aguilar brought authorities in Campeche to the negotiating table.

Your support is still needed.

Sara and Joaquin continue to be defamed and harassed by the Federal Commission of Electricity (CFE), and these tactics are now spreading throughout communities in Mexico who resist the increases in fees for electric service.  The resistance of communities in the states of Campeche and Chiapas is spurred by sky-rocketing electricity costs, due to the growth of U.S. backed privatization schemes, and the construction of new dams that cause environmental damage and displace families.

Now people in various communities in the state of Chiapas are also being targeted for their resistance to the electric rate hikes.   In one community, the actions of the Federal Commission of Electricity took a step up by fueling conflicts between community members.  CFE’s “divide and rule” approach resulted in the death of a farmer and left several people wounded.

In another instance, Nora Cacho, the Executive Director of the Center for Economic & Political Research for Community Action (CIEPAC) – a Grassroots‘ ally – has been receiving threatening phone calls from an unknown individual.  The calls began after Nora led the World March of Women in December, during which she spoke out against acts of feminicide and the criminalization of social movements in Mexico .  According to an open letter released by CIEPAC last week, government officers and police were filming and taking photographs of the demonstration.

Let’s send a resounding message that the world will not turn a blind eye to government repression of peaceful activists.  Please lend your voice once again to pressure federal, state, and municipal authorities in Mexico to stop their tactics of harassment and intimidation against women and organizers.  Time is of the essence. 

Sincerely,

Nikhil Aziz
Executive Director

In 1994 the organization was legally registered as a civil society association under the name “Ecological Farmers of the Sierra Madre of Chiapas” (CESMACH).  Then, in 1996, they obtained their first certification of organic processes and products from the Organic Crop Improvement Association (OCIA) and, in that same year, they were able to begin selling organic coffee to the United States. Eventually, in the year 2000, Cesmach was accepted as a Fair Trade member, having complied with the criteria established for small coffee-producing cooperatives by Max Havelaar. Currently, Cesmach is organically certified in accordance with the National Organic Program (NOP) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and following the guidelines established by the European Union.  It also has Fair Trade certification with FLO International.

1999 was an important year for Cesmach because the organization carried out both internal and external development via a process of priority analysis which helped the group identify strategies that would allow for the cooperative to continue on and to grow in the region, by paying closer attention to urgent needs and by searching for alliances and allies that share the organization’s objectives and needs. Cesmach analyzed basic elements such as access to financing, integrated product quality improvement, increase in the number of producer members in order to create an economic, social and environmental impact, internal capitalization, acquisition of infrastructure and equipment, etc.

Cesmach’s offices and coffee storage warehouse.

The cooperative today

Today Cesmach is well-established as a true cooperative that is active and that serves as a tool for its associated small-coffee producers. It is primarily dedicated to searching for solutions and to making proposals in response to the complex set of problems faced by the small coffee producers and their communities. The following chart provides some information on the evolution of this organized group:

In 2006, CESMACH went through a second internal analysis and strategic planning process, designed to update the co-operatives’ objectives and goals in the framework of a new market reality and changes in the organization to include greater participation from the producer-members, the communities, former leadership from committee members, and the employees.  

Sustainable coffee farm

Currently Cesmach is organized into operational departments (production, commercialization, administration and accounting, commercialization and community development). The important activities of this social business are grouped into programs that are described below.

Collecting pergamino coffee in the farmers’ warehouse.

Sustainable coffee program

The goal of this program is to systematize and carry out production activities, to oversee investment, and to improve the processing and marketing of the organization’s coffee while maintaining ecological standards and a highly-responsible social ethic. A component that was incorporated in 2005 was conservation of the biodiversity, going beyond the farms and looking at that which has the greatest impact on conservation: El Triunfo Biosphere Reserve’s flora and fauna. The result is a coffee that has a tremendous impact on its communities of origin with regards to social, economic, and natural resources.

A visit from Equal Exchange, one of our primary allies in promoting sustainable coffee.

Project to enter domestic coffee market

In order to give the coffee a greater added value and to offer a high-quality product to the Mexican consumer, in 2006 the cooperative acquired the necessary equipment to roast, grind and package its coffee. This is a new project, and one in which relatively little investment has been made, but it is already self-sustaining. However, for it to move to a larger scale, significant investments would need to be made in infrastructure, training, promotion and product development.

Roasted and ground coffee for the Mexican market

Community development program

Since its inception, Cesmach has sought to address other social aspects outside of the coffee supply chain, including the areas of education, food supply, women’s organization, health, etc. However, it was not until 2007 that the Community Development Program was created as a way to provide on-going attention to these social issues—issues that are very important not only in and of themselves but also to the process of being competitive in the existing supply and demand of local coffee production. Some of the projects and actions that have been implemented through this program are highlighted below.  In addition to internal resources through the sales of coffee and funds acquired through the Fair Trade premium, these projects have also received additional financial support through the non-profit organization, Heifer International, as well as the coffee companies, Green Mountain and Equal Exchange.

Food Security & Product Diversification:

Diversification of fruit tree production

Through this project, crops now include gardens and sub tropical fruit trees—peaches, macadamia, citrus, Hass avocados, and apples. The hope is that this will improve the family diet and generate additional income in the future through the sale of the excess production.

Delivery of fruit trees for the product diversification project.

Project to establish organic hen- and egg-production modules

The primary goal of this project is to provide locally-produced poultry and eggs in order to improve family nutrition, generate additional income and to strengthen the economy for those communities affiliated with the organization.

Backyard hen project

Building our Future project

The goal of this project is to incorporate animal and vegetable production in order to strengthen the economy and family food supply for farmers—a model that can eventually be replicated in a chain-like manner (transference of the support received by the initial beneficiaries to a second generation of beneficiaries).  This proposal is based on the idea that the community will carry out other activities beyond the production of coffee, to include backyard animals, organic gardens, ecological beekeeping, fisheries, production of edible mushrooms and on-going training.

Food Security Program activities (organic gardening, backyard animals, edible mushrooms, fisheries, honey production, capacity building, etc.)

Rescuing Local Species

Project to rescue native species

The goal of this project is to encourage the protection, propagation and cultivation of regional vegetable species such as xate palm and pacaya (the first is ornamental and the second is a food item) as well as the tree tomato (which provides an edible fruit)—establishing the plants in nurseries and then transferring them to the coffee fields to create living barriers or to the spaces that are adjacent to the coffee plots.

The rescue of local species: the tree tomato, the pacaya and the xate palm

Strengthening social fabric and environmental education

The organization seeks to strengthen the community’s skills, to establish a greater cohesion among the members, and to raise awareness about the conservation and protection of natural resources from a community perspective.

Participatory workshops on values and human development

Goals and expectations

In the immediate future, Cesmach is trying to find ways to respond to its growing membership, which includes a growing number of families and increased potential for sales value. There is an economic impact on the families, a conservation impact because of the increased number of hectares that are being planted, and the region as a whole is impacted. This leads us to face the challenge of finding solutions to our most serious deficiencies of financing, training, technical assistance in quality control, and a social commitment to explore together ways to respond to the social needs that are increasingly diverse every day.

We must also take into consideration the fact that there is greater competition in the niche market, including private companies that have much greater economic capacity, which makes the panorama seem more competitive and complex.

In the medium- and long-term, Cesmach represents the possibility to consolidate a farmer development model. There is no doubt that there has been an increased participation by the family in all areas of the production chain and in the activities and projects and has helped to generate greater viability.

The incorporation of family members is a valuable element—beyond the producer members there should be participation by the women and the children as well as future generations so that, in the future, they will be able to take over and direct the cooperative as they look to meet the primary objectives for which the organization was created.

 “Our commitment is a better tomorrow for everyone.”

This year one of our Interfaith partners, the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee, granted CESMACH funding to support their efforts to train women leaders in the co-op.  Through our Small Farmers Green Planet Fund, Equal Exchange also sent additional funding to support a food security and environmental protection project through which the women members are planting organic gardens and orchards, raising poultry, and rescuing endangered native plant species in the El Triunfo Biosphere.

We have just received this report, and project update, from the co-op.  The first of two parts, covering the history of CESMACH, the unique resources of the El Triunfo Biosphere, and the situation facing their members in included.  Part II will cover the work that they are doing to grow and export high quality organic coffee, and some of the projects which they are implementing to protect the fragile eco-system in which they live and farm, and improve the quality of life for their members.  They’ve also included some beautiful photos we hope you enjoy!

The El Triunfo Biosphere Reserve

The El Triunfo Biosphere Reserve was established on March 13, 1990 and encompasses 119,117 hectares of land, an area that is shared by the municipalities of Acacoyahua, Angel Albino Corzo, Montecristo de Guerrero, La Concordia, Mapastepec, Pijijiapan, Siltepec and Villa Corzo.

It is made up of rough terrain and the altitude ranges between 400 to 2,750 meters above sea level. The highest points are at El Triunfo, La Bandera, El Venado, El Cebú, La Angostura and Ovando. The total surface area is 119,177 hectares and the land is divided in two management zones: the nucleus zone and the buffer zone. The nucleus zone has five areas (I. El Triunfo, II. Ovando, III. Quetzal, IV. El Venado and V. La Angostura), all of which are designated to protect and research biodiversity and to provide environmental education. This zone has a total surface area of 25,763 hectares. The buffer zone is one area that encircles the nucleus zone and is been primarily designated for the development of sustainable production. It has a surface area of 93,458 hectares.

Location of the El Triunfo Biosphere Reserve

El Triunfo’s flora includes 10 of the 18 types of vegetation found in the state of Chiapas. There is a high diversity of plant species—in the Ovando Hills alone, 791 species, including 476 genus and 122 families, have been reported. 751 species are endemic to the mountainous zone in area 1 (el Triunfo), including Decachaeta ovandensis, Heisteria acuminata, Desmopsis lanceolata, Forchhammeria matudae, Bunchosia matudae, Centardisia (Ardisia) ovandensis, Daphnopsis flavida, Plocanophyllon flavum and Rondeletia ovandensis. Other species that are endemic to this area include the fichus (Ficus crassiuscula), the “carnero” (Coccoloba escuintlensis), the “caquito” (Sloanea terniflora), the “naranjillo” (Swartzia ochnacea), (Ceratozamia matudae) and (Erythrina tajumulcensis).

Flora that is representative of the El Triunfo Biosphere Reserve

Fauna is another important aspect—22% of all species found in Mexico are living in this area. To date, 14 amphibian species, 42 reptilian species, 390 bird species and 112 mammal species have been reported. Some animals are endemic, such as Matuda’s arboreal alligator lizard (Abronia matudae), the Cerro Ovando salamander (Dendrotriton xolocaltcae), the pit viper (Bothriechis ornatus), the blue-winged tanager (Tangara cabanisii) and the horned guan (Oreophasis derbianus). There are other threatened species and species in danger of extinction such as the jaguar (Panthera onca), the spider monkey, (Ateles geoffroyi), the tapir (Tapirus bairdii) and the quetzal (Pharomachrus mocinno mocinno).

The jaguar and the quetzal, two species in danger of extinction, are still present in the El Triunfo Biosphere Reserve.

In El Triunfo there are four climates: sub-humid heat, semi-humid heat, temperate humidity and semi-hot humidity. The temperatures range from 14 to 30 degrees centigrade, with an annual precipitation of 1,000 to 4,500 mm annually. This is one of the regions in the country that receives the most rainfall, which in turn generates a water resource that feeds the Grijalva River hydroelectric complex, the largest in Mexico.

A common panorama in the Sierra Madre of Chiapas

The distance between Tuxtla Gutierrez, the capital of Chiapas, and the El Triunfo Biosphere Reserve is 180 kilometers. It can be reached by following Highway 157 towards Independencia and then heading south towards Jaltenango de la Paz. Upon reaching the Nueva Independencia junction, take the road to Toluca.

The small coffee producers and their social and economic situation

While there may be some differences between a small producer from the Sierra Madre of Chiapas and those who come from other regions, the socio-economic characteristics are basically the same. Since they live in marginalized communities, the families find themselves in disadvantageous and limited situations in terms of important social services. They are also affected by the government’s lack of attention to this area and by the lack of excess income that is needed in order to improve the socio-economic situation.

At the beginning of the 1990s, the small-coffee producer of the Sierra Madre of Chiapas found him or herself in an extremely precarious situation, which highlighted the following needs:

The community of Nueva Colombia, Angel Albino Corzo, Chiapas

Land ownership. The small producers that are members of Cesmach own land cooperatively (via resources that they received from the government’s agrarian reform which was designated for groups of farmers). Initially these lands could not be transferred to third parties, which limited, and even impeded, investment in the Mexican countryside. However, the fact that the lands could not be used as loan collateral helped prevent many producers from losing their lands when they first took ownership.

Coffee production. This region is characterized by a well-defined rainy season (May – October), which is favorable for the crops’ phenological and biological seasons. In particular, the coffee’s stages are well defined—the flowering, bean development, maturation and drying of the bean.

Given that coffee harvest and drying happens during the drought—when there is no rain—there are particular conditions in which the activities must be carried out. This, together with the zone’s geographic conditions, yields a high-quality coffee.

Even though the region’s coffee is intrinsically-high quality, investment in the coffee farms (including the management of coffee plants, harvest infrastructure, de-pulping, and the washing and drying of the beans) is limited. This fact, together with low coffee prices and limited sales opportunities, has made it difficult to produce even better coffee. This results in a vicious cycle of unprofitable production; this is also the case in other regions and for other crops.

Commercial aspect. There is a high degree of dependence on intermediaries—who also purchase the coffee, finance high-interest loans to producers, and commercialize basic grocery goods. The relationship between the intermediaries and the producers exists because the producers need money in order to purchase food. This leads them to make a commitment in which they agree to turn over their next coffee harvest with an interest rate as high as 20% per month. Often times, the intermediary receives an in-kind loan repayment (coffee), generally in the form of “wet coffee” (coffee that was just washed and has not yet gone through the drying process). When measured, this coffee represents greater volume and value at the time of payment.

Coffee producer from the Sierra Madre of Chiapas

Access to basic services. This is one of the most limited and limiting factors for developing countries. In rural areas, permanent and high-quality services are only available for those families who have means. Small coffee producers are generally not able to access these services and therefore they have limited possibilities for improving their economic and social conditions due to their lack of access to these services. Access to healthcare is very irregular. The larger communities of the Sierra Madre, Chiapas have health clinics, but they are substandard and lack well-trained personnel and availability of appropriate medicine and equipment. The absence of medical services for the general population is even more delicate for the fragile situation of those families with scarce resources when they encounter serious health problems.

The availability of water in the homes is not considered to be a serious problem. Generally speaking, thanks to the existence of numerous permanent water springs in the Sierra Madre of Chiapas, most families have regular access to good quality water. A serious problem that was identified and is related to the use of this resource has to do with the wet processing of coffee. Water contamination is more frequent on the small plots and the large plantations. But the organization manages this resource in such a way that the problem is totally under control.

With respect to communication, in some communities there is access to roads, highways and path openings, introduction of telephone lines, etc. However, compared with more urban areas and other parts of Mexico, these communities can be characterized as highly marginalized.

The rainy season coincides with the time of year in which products and economic resources used to satisfy basic needs—including food, health and clothing—are the scarcest. This time of the year represents a very fragile time in the popular economy and it is necessary to look for lasting alternatives to strengthen the communities and to diminish external dependence at this time of year (the lean months).

First steps for the organization

In 1992, the first organic production began in some communities including Toluca, Nueva Colombia and Laguna del Cofre, which at that time were a part of the Angel Albino Corzo municipality (later with the redrawing of municipal lines in Chiapas at the end of the 1990s, communities such as Toluca and Laguna del Cofre were attached to the new municipality of Montecristo de Guerrero). During that year, the El Triunfo Biosphere Reserve leadership implemented, with the help of the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF), a community education program on ecological production. This is an area that has been seen as an alternative for improving economic and social conditions.  Additionally, the producer organization obtained a legal status that allows the producers to form a legally-established organization and officially participate in a variety of activities and requisite formalities.

… to be continued.

The story of the CESMACH (Campesinos Ecológicos de la Sierra Madre de Chiapas) coffee co-operative in Mexico is a powerful example of what a group of far-sighted and tenacious farmers, with a commitment to protect the unique cloud forest in which they live, can accomplish when they set their minds to the task. Since 1995, when the co-operative was legally founded, the 270 coffee producers that live and farm within the buffer zone of the El Triunfo Biosphere, have dedicated themselves to organic farming as a way of protecting the Biosphere’s fragile resources and to create a more sustainable life for themselves and their families. Please read their story as they told it to us.

The CESMACH farmers are located in the Sierra Madre mountains in the southwestern part of the Mexican state of Chiapas. They farm within the buffer zone of El Triunfo, a U.N.- designated biosphere, rich in flora and fauna, containing many endangered and protected species. Within the nucleus of the biosphere, agricultural activities are not permitted as the area contains many endangered and protected species.  Organic farming is allowed in the buffer zone, which separates the biosphere from the surrounding region, as long as it is done in accordance with a strict set of standards designed to protect the fragile environment of the rain and cloud forest.

 

Equal Exchange has been working with the CESMACH co-operative since 2005 when we offered to buy 10 containers of their coffee – 60% of their total production. Since that year, our relationship has been steadily growing. In 2008, we brought our first group of visitors, representatives of food co-ops across the United States, to visit the farmers. It was during this visit, that the founders of CESMACH told us the enthralling story of how they transformed themselves from individual farmers to a strong and visionary co-operative business selling high quality, organic coffee. “It’s been a very long road to get here, and when we started it was just a dream,” Victorico Velasquez Morales, a founding member and former CESMACH president told our group.

CESMACH has had tremendous success selling its members’ coffee into the specialty coffee market, thereby keeping the communities unified and raising their members’ standard of living. Still, the farmers live in highly marginalized communities and they face many critical social and economic challenges. Coffee is the only source of income for most farmers in this region and they are economically dependent on their individual plots which average only five acres.

Consequently, the CESMACH farmers have decided not only to become the supplier of the highest quality, organic coffee in the region, but to create and implement a variety of social development and environmental projects which will benefit its members and the fragile Biosphere in which they live. Three years ago, the co-operative leadership began actively working with the women members and the wives of members to implement small individual patio gardens and collective chicken farms in order to both diversify their families’ diets and to generate additional income.

As part of our new campaign in support of small farmers, the food system and our planet, Equal Exchange is proud to be supporting our partners at the CESMACH co-operative to launch an exciting new Food Security, Environmental Protection and Women’s Capacity Building Project. The project includes the establishment of:

• 167 organic gardens using agro-ecological techniques;
  
• 279 mixed fruit-tree gardens (2000 plants of different species);
  
• 40 rustic family plant nurseries to encourage the recovery of native crops found in the Biosphere, including tomato trees and pacaya so that they will be conserved for future generations and made available for family use;
  
• 30 collective chicken coops; and
  
• 10 workshops to train participants in the management and productive aspects of the project.
  

Throughout the year, the women will also receive trainings and technical assistance in project management and leadership development with a focus on their roles in the co-operative as well as in the management of this project. 

If you would like to support the women of CESMACH and the CESMACH co-operative in general, please buy our 12 oz. packages of Organic Love Buzz.  Equal Exchange will donate 20 cents/package into our Small Farmers Green Planet Fund to support this project and others like it.  (see side panel)  You can also make a tax-deductible contribution by clicking here, or by sending a check to Equal Exchange, 50 United Drive, West Bridgewater, MA  02379.  Please make the check out to Grassroots International and be sure to write SFGP Fund on the memo line.  100% of the donations will go directly to our farmer partners to support their efforts to protect their local eco-systems and provide food security for their families.

Visit our blog for periodic updates on these projects and other issues that affect small farmers, the food system and the planet.

Ask the nearly 600 members of the CIRSA coffee cooperative in the mountains of Chiapas, Mexico, how things are going and they’ll tell you, “Little by little, we’re moving forward.” Considering that a couple of decades ago the parents of these indigenous farmers worked in slavery-like conditions on large coffee plantations in the region, and that their region has been ignored and marginalized throughout its history, their progress is tremendous.

The Indigenous Communities of the Simojovel de Allende Region (CIRSA in Spanish) shipped 235 tons of fair trade coffee last year to the United States and Europe. Through the fair trade certification system, the small farmers of CIRSA and similar cooperatives throughout Latin America are guaranteed a minimum price for their coffee. This provides stability to small farmers, who live in some of the world’s poorest regions—and who are especially vulnerable to the volatile market that dictates world coffee prices. This is why, on our weekly trip to the grocery store, many of us fork over some extra change for fair trade coffee.

Twenty years after its birth, the fair trade movement is suffering some growing pains. No longer a fringe movement, fair trade boasted $2.2 billion dollars in global sales during 2006, and debates rage from within about whether rapid expansion may be compromising the movement’s core principles.

One key debate focuses on the difference between small farmer cooperatives and large plantations. Right now, plantations can’t participate in the fair trade coffee market, but recent proposals would change that. In products such as tea and bananas, most fair trade items already come from large plantations, which win certification by ensuring higher wages, increased worker protections and greater social investments than they would otherwise provide. So what’s the problem with plantations?

It’s important to see how fair trade certification fits into the bigger picture of farmers’ struggle for a decent livelihood. Take the example of CIRSA: The coffee farmers of Simojovel de Allende struggled for years to win the land reform that enabled them to become independent smallholders. The plantations where their families had worked were a legacy of the colonial era, when a small elite controlled most political and economic structures, allowing them to sustain miserable working conditions with miniscule chances for upward mobility.

Owning their own land gave the CIRSA farmers the footing to organize as a cooperative in 1992; the higher wage they earn from fair trade certified coffee, in turn, helps them to win the constant struggle to stay organized.

CIRSA’s treasurer, Juan López, states it eloquently: “Alone, you can’t do anything. We’ve joined together to make a better life.” Phyllis Robinson, education and campaigns manager at fair trade vendor Equal Ex-change, agrees that getting organized is critical. “Small farmers in today’s agricultural markets are up against all odds. The higher, more stable price of fair trade helps keep farmers organized in co-ops, where they have an easier time accessing credit or technical capacity building.”

If the Fair Trade Labeling Organization (FLO) were to start certifying coffee plantations—an idea that has been defeated for now, but is sure to rise again—chains like Wal-Mart or Starbucks would likely make their fair trade purchases from the largest producers, to simplify their logistics. Small farmers worry this shift would take them down a slippery slope back to the dominance of the plantation model.

Another concern is whether fair trade is still providing a living wage. In 2007, FLO approved the first increase of its minimum coffee price in 18 years. The increase of five cents per pound of coffee brought the total price to $1.31 (the price for organic fair trade coffee went from $1.41 to $1.51 a pound). While higher market prices in recent years have forced fair trade buyers to pay above the minimum to guarantee their supplies, farmers pointed to increases in labor and transportation costs that still weren’t covered.

Despite the challenges, CIRSA is committed and hopeful about its future in fair trade. Last year the co-op met all its sales goals and had a surplus to sell to the Mexican market. They’ve purchased their own semitrailer for transport. Every year they pick up a dozen or so new members.

In 2004, CIRSA began receiving visits from groups of U.S. consumers. They welcomed the chance to deepen the commitment and awareness between coffee drinkers and producers, recognizing the importance of an international network of consumers who are paying attention. As Robinson points out, fair trade works best not as an end in itself, but as “a window to get you hooked in. It’s not the last thing you do.”                            

Patty Kupfer worked in Mexico from 2003 to 2005 as an international team member for Witness for Peace. Currently, she organizes for immigration reform.