Adaptation Under the Canopy: Cooperative Membership, Certifications, and Coffee Producer Sustainability in Oaxaca, Mexico
Presentation Type
Oral Presentation
Abstract/Artist Statement
The coffee industry has undergone significant transformation over the past two decades, impacting small-scale producers’ livelihoods and the ecosystems that support them. The International Coffee Agreement, which regulated coffee production worldwide, collapsed in the early 1990s, leading to a dramatic price crash and market volatility that continues to affect the industry. Smallholder farmers in Mexico, as elsewhere, responded to the “coffee crisis” through a range of adaptations, including adjusting livelihoods strategies, migrating to find work, forming cooperative organizations, and obtaining specialty certifications for their product.
The global market for certified coffee, including Organic, Fair Trade, and Rainforest Alliance, is rapidly expanding in the global market in response to changes in the ecological, economic, and social conditions of production. Certification represents a market-based strategy that claims to benefit producer livelihoods while also safeguarding ecosystem health. Certifications claim to offer producers a stronger position in the chain of production, promising higher prices, trade network access, and specialized training to improve cultivation practices. However, recent research on the long-term benefits of certifications indicates that these programs do not confer advantages universally on producers, and there is a significant lack of understanding about the constraints that small-scale growers face in becoming certified (Mendez et al. 2010).
This research examines a case-study community of smallholder coffee farmers in Oaxaca, Mexico to analyze the dynamics around certifications and growers’ cooperatives, and how effectively these institutions help growers adapt to the coffee crisis. I used a mixed-methods approach, employing ethnographic methods, interviews, a household survey, and on-farm measures of tree abundance and frequency to examine how producers continue to adapt to ongoing market change. This study draws on theories about economic adaptation and livelihoods analysis to document the dynamic strategies that smallholder farmers have utilized to maintain their ways of life in response to coffee market instability. Results indicate that while farmers did experience some benefits from cooperative membership and certifications, they did not perceive an overall improvement in their livelihoods due to cooperative membership or certifications. While farmers have adjusted management practices and livelihoods strategies because of cooperative membership and certification, these changes are more accurately characterized as reactive coping responses, rather than proactive adaptations. Smallholders in the case study community are constrained by financial, educational, and technological resources that limit their ability to implement long-term strategies to reduce vulnerability to future commodity market restructuring. This study indicates that certifications fall short in delivering the benefits that they claim, offering insufficient resources to producers in the face of powerful market forces. Greater attention from the specialty coffee supply chain should be given to support other resource programs and relationships of direct trade with producers is warranted.
Mentor Name
Steve Siebert
Adaptation Under the Canopy: Cooperative Membership, Certifications, and Coffee Producer Sustainability in Oaxaca, Mexico
UC 332
The coffee industry has undergone significant transformation over the past two decades, impacting small-scale producers’ livelihoods and the ecosystems that support them. The International Coffee Agreement, which regulated coffee production worldwide, collapsed in the early 1990s, leading to a dramatic price crash and market volatility that continues to affect the industry. Smallholder farmers in Mexico, as elsewhere, responded to the “coffee crisis” through a range of adaptations, including adjusting livelihoods strategies, migrating to find work, forming cooperative organizations, and obtaining specialty certifications for their product.
The global market for certified coffee, including Organic, Fair Trade, and Rainforest Alliance, is rapidly expanding in the global market in response to changes in the ecological, economic, and social conditions of production. Certification represents a market-based strategy that claims to benefit producer livelihoods while also safeguarding ecosystem health. Certifications claim to offer producers a stronger position in the chain of production, promising higher prices, trade network access, and specialized training to improve cultivation practices. However, recent research on the long-term benefits of certifications indicates that these programs do not confer advantages universally on producers, and there is a significant lack of understanding about the constraints that small-scale growers face in becoming certified (Mendez et al. 2010).
This research examines a case-study community of smallholder coffee farmers in Oaxaca, Mexico to analyze the dynamics around certifications and growers’ cooperatives, and how effectively these institutions help growers adapt to the coffee crisis. I used a mixed-methods approach, employing ethnographic methods, interviews, a household survey, and on-farm measures of tree abundance and frequency to examine how producers continue to adapt to ongoing market change. This study draws on theories about economic adaptation and livelihoods analysis to document the dynamic strategies that smallholder farmers have utilized to maintain their ways of life in response to coffee market instability. Results indicate that while farmers did experience some benefits from cooperative membership and certifications, they did not perceive an overall improvement in their livelihoods due to cooperative membership or certifications. While farmers have adjusted management practices and livelihoods strategies because of cooperative membership and certification, these changes are more accurately characterized as reactive coping responses, rather than proactive adaptations. Smallholders in the case study community are constrained by financial, educational, and technological resources that limit their ability to implement long-term strategies to reduce vulnerability to future commodity market restructuring. This study indicates that certifications fall short in delivering the benefits that they claim, offering insufficient resources to producers in the face of powerful market forces. Greater attention from the specialty coffee supply chain should be given to support other resource programs and relationships of direct trade with producers is warranted.