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decision to leave Procaoc and join the largest cooperative in Las Segovias, Prodeco-op. Don Polo explained: Es que el precio mejoró y no querríamos continuar con el orgánico por que era mucho trabajo. Las cooperativas en San Juan prefieren orgánico. La Prodecoop nos conviene porque nos ofrece un buen precio por el café convencional y lo coloca muy bien. Además, la Prodecoop siendo bien grande y estable nos puede asegurar los adelantos sin atraso (It’s just that the price improved and we didn’t want to stay with organic [farming] because it’s too much work. The San Juan cooperatives prefer organic coffee. Prodecoop is better for us because they offer a good price for conventional [coffee] and they have a good market for it. Also, being that Prodecoop is so big and stable they can ensure our advances without delay). “Basicamente, es más fácil trabajar con la Prodeco-op que con la Procaoc o la UCA. No me preocupo por las deudas de los otros socios. Sólo me preocupo por mi, nada más (Basically, it’s easier to work with Prodecoop than with Procaoc or UCA. I’m not concerned with other members’ debts. I just worry about myself, no one else),” Polo’s son Juan added. The effort to sustain the local economy, the ecosystem, and the community through organic farming practices requires the collective investment, ideological commitment, and shared risk of the farmer-members of a cooperative. Prodecoop has 29 elected delegates that run the organization for more than 2,000 farmers. Of course, not every farmer’s voice can be heard in this arrangement. The smaller San Juan cooperatives are based on a democratic model of shared gains and losses. From my perspective, this brings the community together around the fluctuating local coffee economy. Realizations and Potential Frustrations As previously mentioned, Danilo González and Reinaldo Moreno have elevated their income and prestige through participation in the Cup of Excellence awards and as leaders 188
in their cooperative and communities. By contrast, Adrian González and Santos González Ponce, as small-scale farmers, benefit from stable credits and sales but are not on the forefront of cooperative decisions, do not host potential buyers, and do not grow enough coffee annually to participate in high-value auctions. As explained earlier, the small-scale farmers must physically engage in labor on their farms. Medium- and large-scale growers can afford to hire laborers and thus give time to cooperative administration, marketing efforts, and training programs. Danilo made a very poignant statement regarding the collective nature of organic production and cooperative organization in reference to the (then upcoming) 2006 presidential election. The race was between Daniel Ortega, the former Sandinista president, and Eduardo Montealegre, the US-backed, neoliberal candidate. In an effort to gain rural and agrarian support for the Sandinista candidate, Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez sent “10 tons of urea for fertilizer, to be sold at a very low price to small producers and cooperatives through a Sandinista business” (Envio 2006:298). Sitting in the kitchen of the farmhouse, Danilo and I were having a couple of beers and discussing the upcoming election. I asked him if he would be interested in cheap urea even though he is a certified organic farmer. “¿Usted aprovecharía de esa urea venezolana?” I asked. “¿Sabe una cosa?” Danilo replied, “Si Daniel [Ortega] no gana esta elección me salgo de esta cosa. Si ganan los Liberales no vale la pena seguir en la cooperativa ni produciendo orgánico (You know what? If Daniel doesn’t win I’m out of this thing. If the Liberals win it’s not worth staying in the cooperative or farming organic).” “¿De veras? ¿Usted se acabaría con todo esto? ¿Vendería sólo después de haber trabajado tanto para organizarse y vender bien? ¿Por qué? (Really? You would get rid of all this? You’d sell alone after working so hard to organize and sell well? Why?),” I responded. 189
Page 1 and 2:
Patrick W. Staib Candidate Anthropo
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COFFEE AND THE COUNTRYSIDE: SMALL F
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I heartily acknowle
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Informal Economy in San Juan del R
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Preface La sabiduria y la constante
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aftershocks of a war in this commun
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This chapter brings the reader into
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Introduction: The Fieldwork I first
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I had visited Matagalpa in 2000, wh
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agricultural extension agents 3 in
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Figure 1. Map of Nicaragua showing
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Nevertheless, San Juan was the idea
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Telpaneca today is a depressed muni
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Figure 2. Electoral map of San Juan
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espondents reported that at least o
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In my experience assisting small-sc
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fieldwork, including surveying, int
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crop aggregation meeting simply bec
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The following chapters are an overv
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Don Amado raised his family of six
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once-bustling colonial center of Nu
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One afternoon, while sitting on his
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Chapter 1 Regional Identity Formati
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Vásquez’ records indicate that t
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The native Segovians apparently coo
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The role of native Segovians was ke
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thousands 22 of passengers to Nicar
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The Pueblos de Indios stood in the
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industry leader and an advocate for
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The mid to late 1980s proved to be
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The Indigenous Revolt of 1881 and I
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These communities appear to have es
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sectors of society forced rural com
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Nationalist writers Gámez (1889),
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San Juan farmers’ understandings
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Sandinista Revolution made signific
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Sandino’s Influential Rebellion A
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Migrant workers in the Babilonia go
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In an ironic turn of events, the Sa
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Somoza regime and U.S. economic and
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The high ideals of the Sandinista r
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three special zones. Las Segovias,
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economic activity for rural communi
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Over time, some members wanted to g
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Chapter 3 Personal Histories of Agr
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to talk about the confiscation of S
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mountains, El Malacate, El Majaste,
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transport between Samarkanda and Sa
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high-altitude farmland. Don Mundo,
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areas. The Contras were former Guar
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effort. As Don Ramón put it, “la
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The project was called Huertos Fami
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who is president of the Carlos Fons
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Part Two Development: International
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I consider how organic coffee fits
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Small-Scale Agrarian Communities, D
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Although the ideological justificat
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(Richards 1985; Dennis 1987). Latin
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dominated much of Third World expor
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depleting natural resources or degr
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communities experience tensions and
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I sat in and helped facilitate seve
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urning. When the wind was calm, our
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Marvin was involved with a rural en
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Hurricane Mitch and the Internation
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Conclusion Because the plant and th
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The Farmers of Las Grietas Upon mee
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stonemason and carpenter for local
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for work in the past five years? If
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for Danilo, but not as closely as w
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The lives of these three families h
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Adrian was able to invest in a bene
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employee dormitories. The large far
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Wiwilí. Danilo had to show proof o
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in Nicaragua, and I encountered it
Page 151 and 152: from the training in production tec
Page 153 and 154: farmers who receive pre-harvest fin
Page 155 and 156: award committee, in 2003 and 2004.
Page 157 and 158: time farm staff. Danilo, on the oth
Page 159 and 160: were able to accumulate large tract
Page 161 and 162: natural resources, to conserve, pro
Page 163 and 164: The growers share a collective resp
Page 165 and 166: Danilo, Maragojipe does not thrive
Page 167 and 168: In August and September, farmers fo
Page 169 and 170: gallon bucket of coffee cherries, a
Page 171 and 172: section with smaller Catuaí plants
Page 173 and 174: The beans turn from a pale green to
Page 175 and 176: Rainforest Alliance and the Audubon
Page 177 and 178: Figure 5. Depulping coffee with mot
Page 179 and 180: engañar facilmente (They [the brok
Page 181 and 182: farmers are not adept at these proc
Page 183 and 184: The International Cup of Excellence
Page 185 and 186: Organic Farming Responsibilities In
Page 187 and 188: The Nicaraguan Rural Development In
Page 189 and 190: unsuccessfully combated, can only b
Page 191 and 192: Organic Fertilizers Many coffee far
Page 193 and 194: community. This means, for example,
Page 195 and 196: application. Most farmers had not e
Page 197 and 198: They returned that evening empty-ha
Page 199 and 200: Danilo’s fields as we talked with
Page 201: converting to organic production. H
Page 205 and 206: organizational strategies present m
Page 207 and 208: Part Three Outcomes: Cooperative Or
Page 209 and 210: organizational models that have bee
Page 211 and 212: coffee farmer, and José Manuel Mor
Page 213 and 214: El estado cuenta con nosotros porqu
Page 215 and 216: company” (la empresa) when talkin
Page 217 and 218: their estimated yield should cover
Page 219 and 220: firm, CISA/AGRO. Corcasan has its o
Page 221 and 222: earning higher prices for their far
Page 223 and 224: funding package. Corcasan brought i
Page 225 and 226: The credit model from banks and mic
Page 227 and 228: green coffee that weighed 412 quint
Page 229 and 230: This is not an exact measurement, b
Page 231 and 232: only for a few select farmers. That
Page 233 and 234: Tito is Heberto’s oldest son. He
Page 235 and 236: Towards the end of my fieldwork the
Page 237 and 238: Danilo received several of the bene
Page 239 and 240: prohibited on this farm).” Some f
Page 241 and 242: One afternoon in August 2006, near
Page 243 and 244: single gas station in San Juan. Bro
Page 245 and 246: camp, was only 30 kilometers away.
Page 247 and 248: emote parts of the community to fin
Page 249 and 250: apparently the more diligent farmer
Page 251 and 252: Chapter 8 Community-Based Campesino
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campesinos y del ecosistema. No hay
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Nosotros en la Procaoc vendemos apa
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have the capacity to supply the dem
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instructor, actually instructs farm
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transparencia (There’s problems w
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waste my time with the smaller farm
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Javier Vanegas, accountant for the
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conversation provided a foundation
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carpenter; and Jorge, the assistant
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“Nosotros [Guillermo Hernández]
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en el servicio. (They gave it to me
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The cooperative model for export ag
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day went on. The music changed to l
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would ask me about my research and
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familiar with the community of Guan
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houses and additional farmland, but
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statement was in reference to Corca
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colonial history in Chapter 1), the
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Conclusion Regional Segovian identi
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production and marketing of organic
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economic development programs. In t
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capacity of their fellow farmers. T
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encountered in trying to conserve r
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Benjamin, Medea 1987 Don’t Be Afr
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Enríquez, Laura J. 1991 Harvesting
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Guido, Clemente 1989 Los Conservado
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MAGFOR 2004 Estrategia para la reco
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Redford, Kent H. and Allyn. M. Stea
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Turner, Terence 1991 Representing,
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Appendix EL SIGÜIENTE COMUNICADO R
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