Coffee Co-op
The ISMAM (Indigenes de la Sierra Madre de Motozintla) coffee cooperative in Chiapas, Mexico empowers coffee farmers to compete in the global arena. The cooperative was established in 1985 in response to poverty and exploitation and produces organic, shade-grown, Fair-Trade coffee. The farmers’ communally owned fleet of trucks and factory helps integrate the business and bypass middlemen (known as “coyotes” for their low prices). The strong sense of community amongst the families is present throughout their daily life. This is the rural structure of community-based sustainable development.
Migrant coffee pickers from Guatemala carry raw coffee from the hillside near Rancho Bonito, Chiapas, Mexico in February 2000.
Portrait of coffee farmer Mario Solis Velasquez, 56 years old, in Rancho Bonito, Chiapas, Mexico in February 2000.
Coffee plants are nestled among trees on the hills of the Sierra Madre mountains of Chiapas, Mexico.
Fair-Trade, shade-grown, organic coffee is picked in the mountains of Chiapas, Mexico in February of 2000.
Members of the ISMAM (Indigenes de la Sierra Madre de Motozintla) coffee cooperative pause along a trail through the mountains of Chiapas, Mexico in February 2000.
Alicia, 29, holds her baby in front of their home in Rancho Bonito, Chiapas, Mexico in February 2000.
The children of Epifanio Perez Roblero help with the collection of dry coffee beans outside their home in Rancho Bonito, Chiapas, Mexico in February 2000.
Raw coffee beans soak during processing near Rancho Bonito, Chiapas, Mexico in February 2000. The leftover pulp is used as compost because, as one grower explains, "Aqui no se utilize la quimica. (Here, chemicals aren't used.)".
Members of ISMAM (Indigenes de la Sierra Madre de Motozintla) travel by truck to a community meeting in Chiapas, Mexico in February 2000.
In the mountains of Chiapas, Mexico every available surface, such as this basketball court in Concepcion Pinada, is utilized for the drying of coffee during the harvest.