The members of the El Pinal cooperative have their heads in the clouds, literally. Their offices and their mill are perched on a narrow peak of the Cordillera del Bálsamo that is as often as not wrapped in mist and clouds. But the organization is seeing its future clearly and thinking in ways they haven’t […]
Maya Vinic means Maya Man in Tzotzil, one of the three indigenous languages the organization’s members speak. Maya Vinic’s members say the cooperative’s name evokes their ancestors and their coffee, which they grow with love and respect for Mother Earth, in the highland forests of Chiapas. Maya Vinic’s members believe that the extraordinary quality of […]
Counter Culture Coffee on Friday announced it is now offering a single-origin, Direct Trade Certified coffee from 5 de junio, a cooperative participating in our CAFE Livelihoods project. While this may not be Earth-shaking news in the United States, it represents the culmination of years of hard work in a handful of coffee communities in […]
APECAFORM’s name tells you a lot about the organization’s members. APECAFORM is the Maya-Mam Association of Smallholder Organic Coffee Farmers. Its 472 members are Maya indigenous people who speak predominantly Mam, one of more than 20 languages spoken in Guatemala. They are also smallholder coffee farmers committed to organic shade farming. What the name doesn’t […]
Santa Adelaida has been committed to principles of environmental sustainability since it began growing shade coffee in 1980. So when a local NGO suggested in 1992 that the organization’s members begin farming organically, it was a vision closely aligned with Santa Adelaida’s own. That year, its members began the transition to organic farming practices with […]
The Santa Anita Coffee Producers Association is comprised of 117 revolutionary ex-combatants in Guatemala’s civil war. They laid down their arms in 1996 as part of the Peace Agreements, but they have never stopped talking about revolution. For decades, they sacrificed to achieve their vision of equality and justice in all of Guatemala. In 1998, […]
The 5 de junio cooperative sees organic specialty coffee as the key to the development of its communities. Its confidence in this vision reflects its belief that its coffee embodies the best its communities have to offer, from the terroir of a coffee origin emerging as one of Nicaragua’s finest, to the generosity, hard work […]
The El Salto cooperative in El Salvador is named for a dramatic waterfall – or “salto de agua” – just a short distance from its offices that sends water tumbling more than 60 meters over a sheer rock face. It is one of five waterfalls on the farm that the cooperative’s members manage collectively, so […]
For MICHIZA’s 730 members — indigenous smallholders whose families have been farming coffee for generations — massive renovation is the best way to ensure that their past has a future.
The Las Colinas cooperative manages natural spring that provides water to thousands of its neighbors. Caring for it is a responsibility that Las Colinas takes seriously.
