AgroEco® Coffee | Alternative Trade Model
CAN has developed an alternative trade model — AgroEco® Coffee — operating under principles of participation and transparency. CAN, US roasters, the importer, producer organizations, and farmers sit at the negotiating table together to bring coffee from Mexico and Nicaragua to the United States. We have guaranteed a higher price than Fair Trade, and the purchase of each pound contributes to a Sustainable Agriculture Fund and a Women’s Unpaid Labor Fund. These investment proceeds are managed collectively by farmers.
We work with farmer organizations in the mountain region of Veracruz, Mexico and in San Ramón, Nicaragua. We build relationships to ensure that what’s behind the cup of coffee is quality of life and quality of bean. We maintain an ongoing relationship with farmer organizations and their members, and collaborate with them on projects to improve food security and socioeconomic well being as well as sustainable agriculture practices.
CAN and its partner organizations jointly monitor the impacts and processes of the AgroEco® Coffee partnership, measuring changes in farming practices, social wellbeing, and environmental health in the communities we partner with, as well as verifying transparency along the commodity chain.
We share our impacts with consumers through the AgroEco® Coffee label. We also invite consumers to visit AgroEco® Coffee farmer communities each year on an organized tour, where they can experience for themselves the impact of long-term relationships and an innovate participation model.
When you see the AgroEco® Coffee logo, you know you can expect:
- Shade-grown, Arabica coffee beans
- Higher price for farmers
- Long-term partnerships
- Participation and transparency
- Food security
- Environmental conservation
- Women’s economic empowerment.
But the AgroEco® Coffee logo stands for much more. It stands for:
- Fairness
- Human dignity
- Economic justice
- Environmental conservation
- Food security
It represents long-term commitments with producer cooperatives and family farmers.
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Origin: Municipality of San Ramon, Matagalpa, Nicaragua
Altitude: 700 m – 1,000 m
Cooperative Profile: Union of Cooperatives San Ramon brings together 1200 smallholder farmers in 21 base cooperatives, 36% of whom are women. Fair Trade and Rainforest Alliance Certified.
Cupping Profile: A pleasantly bright coffee, medium bodies with notes of dark chocolate, cherry, and toasted nuts.
Origin: Municipality of Ixhuatlan del Café, Veracruz, Mexico
Altitude: 1,000 m – 1,300 m
Cooperative Profile: Campesinos en la Lucha Agraria brings together over 100 smallholder coffee farmers, all farms are certified USDA Organic.
Cupping Profile: A medium-full bodies, nutty chocolate, with hints of citrus.
AgroEco® Coffee
An Origin in Farmer and Youth-lead Cross-Border Solidarity
AgroEco® Coffee emerged as a response to the global coffee crisis of 1999-2003. The “C” price of coffee on the global commodity market crashed, particularly impacting vulnerable small farmers. Coffee farmers, researchers, and students who had been collaborating on research projects met together in an intercambio (exchange) to leverage knowledge and resources in order to build an alternative market for fairly priced coffee based on solidarity. The AgroEco® Coffee Project takes coffee produced by farmers out of the unpredictability of a capitalist commercial-based relationship. As a result of the alternative trade and related food sovereignty projects, AgroEco® has meant fewer coffee-growing families have had to migrate for economic reasons and youth are building food systems changes at home.
University of California, Santa Cruz students involved in the project research and other sustainability efforts launched a campaign on campus to get their cafes and dining halls to offer this coffee available through a new, alternative trade model. The students knew that each cup of coffee supported CAN’s work to ensure that the family farmers who grow the delicious, high-quality coffee that students enjoy have enough food to eat year-round.
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Example: Insect pollinators play an important role in an ecosystem. However, they are disappearing due to deforestation, pesticide use, and climate change. In order to increase the population of native pollinators and benefit family farmers and their neighbors, Campesinos en la Lucha Agraria purchased eight hives of Mexico’s native stingless bee, Melipona beecheii. The bee keepers include two coffee promoters, one health promoter, and one young farmer. The native meliponines’ products include honey, pollen, cerumen, and propolis. Families sell these products unprocessed or as value-added herbal medicine products in order to diversify their income.
Click here to learn more from coffee farmer Gisela Illsecas about the re-introduction of native bees.
Examples: In Veracruz, Mexico, VIDA invested in the purchase of a mechanical screen for sorting green coffee. Approximately 4,000 lbs of green coffee are sorted annually for national sale. Using a mechanical screen rather than manual sorting has made it possible to sort more coffee in less time.
Funds were also used for an event to commemorate the 20th anniversary of three groups of campesina women in Ahorro Solidario (Solidarity Savings). The event recognized women from Cosautlan and Ixhuatlan who have made a difference in their communities, including those who have passed.
Campuses
• University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC): The UCSC community can enjoy our delicious AgroEco® Coffee in dining halls and PERK Coffee Bars
• Santa Clara University (SCU): Bon Appétit Management Company provides café services to SCU. Known for its commitment to socially responsible practices, Bon Appétit began offering AgroEco® Coffee at SCU’s Sunstream Café in September 2012.
• Cal Poly San Luis Obispo: Cal Poly students are working with CAN to bring AgroEco® Coffee to their campus.
Retail Stores in California
Arcata
Los Bagels Arcata
1061 I Street
Arcata, CA 95521
707/822-3150
Santa Cruz County
Our local roaster, Santa Cruz Coffee Roasting Company sells AgroEco® Coffee online, in its retail outlet in Santa Cruz, and to wholesale markets.
Santa Cruz Coffee Roasting Company
Historic Palomar Arcade 9
1330 Pacific Ave.
Santa Cruz, CA
831/459-0100
AgroEco® Coffee Monitoring & Evaluation Data | 2012-2013 Data
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