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

Chapter 7
Organic Coffee Cooperatives in Las Segovias:
Power Dynamics and Challenges for Export Production
Traditional channels for export control the flow of organic coffee and other alternatively
produced commodities from Nicaragua to consumer nations. In order to obtain
development funding, farmer-owned and -managed organizations must prove to the
funding agencies that they have a stable market for their products and a vision for growth.
This scenario resembles the dynamic of small business development in much of the
capitalist world. Farmers must justify the support they receive with aspirations for
expansion that are often beyond what is realistic for small-scale farmers in Las Segovias.
Based in global capitalism, alternative development appeals to the growing
market demand for socially just and ecologically sustainable products. The shift toward
organic coffee production provides a model for success for small-scale and subsistence-
level farmers. This model is embedded in the discourse of entrepreneurship within the
capitalist system. The conventional entrepreneurial discourse does not prioritize
community-level sustainability, but rather individual survival and success, which it is
assumed will lead to the betterment of the community. Recent alternative forms of
entrepreneurship come from the hegemonic agribusiness model for “successful” farming,
which stems from the capitalist tenets that Max Weber discussed in his critique of the
Protestant work ethic and Calvinism (Giddens 1971).
Farmer-owned cooperatives such as the three that I worked with in San Juan are a
crucial facet of the coffee industry. They adapt present-day concerns to collective
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