i Patrick W. Staib Anthropology This dissertation is approved, and it ...

trade. Exporters such as Atlantic S.A. and development agencies such as CLUSA claim
that the more control farmers have over the quality and conditions of their plantations, the
better off they will be in terms of retaining profits and defending local interests. Driven
by demand for more sustainable and socially just coffee ventures, exporters encourage
national governments and development agencies to facilitate the conversion of small
farmers to organic production. Development agronomists, financiers, and educators train
farmers in farm management, quality control, ecological conservation, and export
processes.
This is reminiscent of what Escobar describes as the “development encounter”
between external influences and local knowledge (Escobar 1995). Acknowledgment of
local perspectives regarding foreign influence on their traditional farming and trade
practices can help recipients of these aid programs to be active agents, rather than passive
recipients, in determining which programs will endure and succeed under the local
definitions for success. Organic farmers are not passively accepting change; rather they
are contesting innovations to their fields and adapting outside influences to their locally
lived realities.
Historically, multinational corporations have capitalized on the farmers’
ignorance of the nuances of coffee quality and the international market. Today, some of
the same multinational export firms are encouraging sustainable approaches to keep small
farmers productive for the specialty coffee market. As David Robleto Lang, former
president of Unión Nicaragüense de Cafetaleros (Unicafé), describes, sustainable farming
not only benefits the farmers themselves, it also ensures the viability of coffee as a
national industry (Robleto Lang 2000:10).
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