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From: "Dana Aldea" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Universal,Certifying coffee helps farmers and forests in Chiapas Date: Fri, 11 May 2007 15:19:50 +0200 Certifying coffee helps farmers and forests in Chiapas Wire services / El Universal Viernes 11 de mayo de 2007 http://www.mexiconews.com.mx/24565.html NUEVO PARAI'SO, Chis. - Miguel Moshan Me'ndez's troubles have piled up over the past two years. Like other coffee growers here in the impoverished state of Chiapas, he suffered devastating losses when Hurricane Stan passed through 18 months ago. He lost half his trees, then borrowed money to get by. Now, he must find extra work as a laborer to pay his debt, which will make it harder to maintain his tiny farm. "I have always fallen to the moneylender, God yes," he said. "We're all thinking of it." What may help, at least a little, is that his coffee-growing cooperative, Comon Yaj Nop Tic, is part of a program that helps growers get higher prices for their beans if they meet certain environmental and other standards. Moshan Me'ndez's cooperative sells to Starbucks, which pays higher prices as farmers meet more of its goals, such as producing beans of high quality or using transparent accounting. Other similar efforts, called certification programs, are run by nongovernmental organizations. To earn certification, farmers must show that they are protecting the environment, investing in community projects and treating workers well. The Fair Trade program, for example, requires buyers of its certified beans to pay above the market price to the farmers. Other certification plans do not guarantee farmers higher prices, but they say many buyers are willing to pay more for coffee if they can offer consumers the assurance that the coffee is produced with a concern for workers and the environment. In this coffee region, known as Jaltenango, on the eastern slopes of the Sierra Madre, higher prices for certified beans have trickled down to some growers, and certification has also had an environmental impact. In the past, the area has lost forest when poor farmers cut trees and switch to cattle ranching or growing corn to try to make more money. When the farmers earn enough money from their beans to stick with coffee instead, the forest is protected; coffee trees here are traditionally planted under a canopy of indigenous trees. The rush to certify coffee is now drawing an expanding list of players, including giant plantations and multinational traders, something that seemed unimaginable just a few years ago. Pioneers in the certified coffee movement watch the change with wary approval. "The good thing is that you see these ideas gaining traction," said Rodney North, a board member at Equal Exchange, an importer in Massachusetts. But as the certification programs spread, they are drawing large plantations, or fincas, to join, raising worries among small- scale producers who fear they will lose their advantage as the original suppliers. -- To unsubscribe from this list send a message containing the words unsubscribe chiapas95 (or chiapas95-lite, or chiapas95-english, or chiapas95-espanol) to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Previous messages are available from http://www.eco.utexas.edu/faculty/Cleaver/chiapas95.html or gopher to Texas, University of Texas at Austin, Department of Economics, Mailing Lists.
