BURLINGTON, VT, U.S. – In this difficult period, Food 4 Farmers releases its 2019 Annual Report highlighting how food security and diversification strategies are helping families weather the pandemic. Coffee-farming families are facing an unprecedented triumvirate of challenges: the ongoing effects of climate change, stubbornly low prices for coffee, and now the effects of the novel coronavirus.
“The future of coffee hinges on coffee-farming families being able to use their land as a critical resource to diversify into food production as well as coffee,” said Janice Nadworny, Co-Director of Food 4 Farmers. “When a crisis hits, families can better adapt to challenges if they’re able to rely on their farms as thriving local food and economic hubs while continuing to produce coffee.”
Food 4 Farmers takes a long-term approach to help Latin American coffee-producing communities diagnose their challenges, identify opportunities, develop strategies and implement them. The organization currently works with six coffee cooperatives and associations representing 8,000 small-scale coffee-farming families in Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Colombia.
This year, those farmers made tangible advances in building food security:
- In Jinotega, Nicaragua, families at SOPPEXCCA reduced the gap between net income earned from coffee and annual food costs by 40 percent, while producing healthy, organic food for their community.
- Young people in Guatemala are finding new job opportunities through beekeeping where they now represent 39 percent of beekeepers at the Maya Ixil Cooperative.
- The beekeeping coffee farmers of CESCMACH in Mexico saw their income increase by 41 percent from sales of honey and other bee products.
- Seventeen young promoters at COMEPCAFE in Colombia are helping 288 families improve health and nutrition, grow traditional crops, and revitalize lost food traditions.
- Nuevo Futuro in Colombia has successfully integrated food security into its mission and planning, with member-families and a local school now managing thriving food gardens.
Click here to read more and download the full report.
About Food 4 Farmers
Food 4 Farmers partners with Latin American coffee-farming communities to cultivate a food-secure future. The team coaches and connects coffee cooperatives, small-scale farmers, and their families with the expertise they need to strengthen local food systems, build economic independence, cultivate leadership among families, women and young people, and support environmentally-friendly farming practices.
For more information visit www.food4farmers.org.
