Morning Coffee
by Allan Slater, Lakeside Ontario, 18 July 2000
It is Monday morning, July 17. The usual rush to
the coffee pot is on for the Christian Peacemaker Teams
delegation in Chiapas. Fred is our champion coffee swiller. On
the other end of the scale is Shirley who only drinks one cup of
de-caff on alternate Thursdays.
Teresa, a worker with Cloudforest Initiatives has been helping us
understand the situation in Chiapas. Cloudforest Initiaitives
develops programmes to improve the lives of the indigenous people
in this state's highlands. One of these initiatives has been the
development of the 1000 member Bird Mountain coffee growers
co-operative. Bird Mountain, so named centuries ago because
millions of birds migrate from northern nesting grounds over this
mountain.
Mariano and Andreas, two growers from Bird Mountain Co-operative
met with us. The co-operative was formed in 1997 and immediately
decided that organically certified "shade" coffee.
Shade-grown coffee, as opposed to plantation coffee, is grown
under trees, thus protecting the forest. Organic certification
comes after a seven-year transition period and costs about a
thousand dollars US per year. Not only the coffee but all the
other gardens on the farms have to be kept chemical and pesticide
free. Homemade compost provides nutrients and humus for the soil.
Cloudforest Initiatives looks after the international marketing
through the Fair Trade system in Canada and the USA. We can
obtainn this coffee from: Cloudforest Initiatives, PO Box 40207,
St. Paul MN 55104. (On the World Wide Web at
www.Cloudforest.mexico.org.) The growers get a guaranteed
reasonable price of 70 pesos per kilograarm for their coffee
beans.
Mariano and Andreas commented that organic production has
resulted in better quality beans from healthier plants. Labor
requirements have increased, but chemical costs have disappeared
completely. The increased use of local labour has kept more
people at work and more money in the community. The market for
the coffee has expanded dramatically because there is a growing
demand worldwide for their ecologically friendly
organically-grown shade coffee.
A side effect of the organic certification process has been noted
in their vegetable gardens. With careful crop rotation and
composting, the soil health has improved in only three years.
Shirley does not think that her purchase of this coffee will
alter the world coffee trade in any significant manner. She is
pleased, however, that a large Quaker centre that she attended
uses only Fair Trade coffee.
Having heard this presentation, Fred commented that, "We
have to be more careful where we buy our coffee." Then he
observed that we need to be more aware of all our food purchases
by asking, "Who produces our food? How is it produced?"
Fred is so enthusiatic
about Cloudforest coffee that he is thinking about setting up a
web site to market it.