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

strong ideological commitment to ecological or social justice values (rooted in ethnicity,
religion, or politics) are likely to have stronger organizations and are likely to have
greater success working with alternative coffee networks than those who are firmly
rooted in western capitalist values of individualism, competition, and environmental
exploitation” (2003: 15). This assumption perpetuates a preference for farmers who
embody an ideal image of a coffee grower. Raynolds may be overlooking farmers who
actively negotiate their attitudes and receptivity towards development innovations with
concern for their personal survival.
My research supports Raynolds’s assertion by applying a class-based
interpretation of the potential for individual farmer success in alternative production and
trade. My data show that organic production principles are more accessible and
executable for farmers from the more mobile, educated, and affluent socioeconomic
classes. Consequently, more medium-scale and large-scale farmers have been converting
to organic production and are experiencing greater success than smaller farmers have. It
is true that in a capitalist, class-based agrarian society, affluent farmers will stimulate job
growth and improved investment. However, the paradox in this form of development is
that it presumably provides assistance to the impoverished family farmer, when in
actuality it helps the entrepreneurial class expand and succeed while offering minimal
improvements for the poorest of farmers.
Just as conventional development agendas have done since WWII, “alternative”
approaches to small-scale agriculture tend to reinforce the historical inequities and
dependencies. Development projects continue to leave communities dependent on
“development experts.” Instead of experiencing progress, many small-scale agrarian
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