Cup o Joe

Okay, the short version! 15 minutes until class. We spent the morning with Robert Jimenez, a sustainable coffee farmer in Agua Buena, a small town in the mountains a 20 minute drive from the field station. His coffee "finca" looks more like a forest, with banana and guava trees shading coffee plants. He has replanted degraded pastures with rain forest vegetation as well. His farming practices produce coffee and food, but they also provide essential ecosystem services: creating habitat for birds and native pollinators, preventing erosion, maintaining watersheds, sequestering carbon. As Roberto showed us his land, it was very clear that his heart is in this issues, in enriching the "medio ambiente," rathering than turning a profit.



The night before we watched a short film about the economics of coffee production. As most of us have probably heard before, the producers make very little profit for each cup of coffee that we buy in the United States and they also absorb all of the risk. When coffee prices drop, their income drops. To provide farmers with a sustainable, just income, the farmers and community activists in the US have started various direct-marketing co-operatives, in addition to the fair trade certifications already in place.

Roberto Jimenez is a part of the CoopePueblo, a cooperative that links over 50 farmers in the Agua Buena region to consumers in the US. The coffee is wonderful and its production supports families and healthy land practices in Costa Rica. I encourage you to check out the website and place an order: http://www.unatazacompartida.org