Yesterday — day three of Food Security Solutions — we began the day by dividing into groups again to begin another two-day workshop. In the evening, we ended the day by coming together to discuss an issue that affects us all and will shape the food security lanscape for generations to come — climate change. In between, I found time to visit with farmers and staff of CECOCAFEN, a leading Nicaraguan Fair Trade cooperative and a partner in the CRS CAFE Livelihoods project and spend some time with a very talented photographer who rode here from the United States on a Vespa and has been shooting photos all along the way.
- Climate Change.
Representatives of CIAT, CRS and CECOCAFEN presented their collaboration on the CUP project, which is working to bring the best available science on climate change to smallholder farmers to help better understand what lies ahead and what they might do about it.
- Cooperativa Simón Bolívar.
CAFE Livelihoods has helped the 28 members of the Simón Bolívar Cooperative — part of CECOCAFEN — invest in renovating their aging coffee fields. The organization’s vice president, Don Cipriano, is 64 years old and a founding member of the cooperative.
Don Cipriano.
He was among the original group of farmers who moved to Siares in 1986 when the organization purchased its collective farm as part of the Sandinista-era agrarian reform. Among other things, he showed me two sources of real pride: his coffee…
…and his grandchildren.
- Organic Coffee Vespa Tour.
Braving a drug war in northern Mexico, volcanic eruptions and tropical storms in Guatemala, Clay Enos has come to Food Security Solutions on a Vespa from the United States and published — as of this writing — 1350 photos of the adventure on his Organic Coffee Vespa Tour flickr stream. (To see some extraordinary images of farmers from ASOCAMPO, a partner in our CAFE Livelihoods project in Guatemala, start at this image of ASOCAMPO’s president Don Gaspar and page forward until you reach this image.)