OpinionFrom the Arizona Daily Star Guest Opinion: Laura Huntoon Craving a cup of coffee? Think about this Tucson, Arizona | Published: 12.14.2006 Many Tucson coffee drinkers are familiar with Just Coffee, a cooperative based in Chiapas, Mexico. Just Coffee markets shade-grown organic estate coffee directly to consumers in the United States. Many Tucson coffee drinkers are familiar with Just Coffee, a cooperative based in Chiapas, Mexico. Just Coffee markets What may be less well known is that buying Just Coffee helps stem the flow of undocumented migrants from the coffee-growing region of Mexico. The fair price the Just Coffee cooperative receives means that many farmers and their family members can make a living without having to cross illegally into the United States to find work. Their success is a model of hope for many villagers, but it relies on informed consumers in this country. Typical of many desperate migrants, Chuy Fernandez, an agricultural engineer from Veracruz, Mexico, left home with a plan. Fernandez's goal was to find a job to raise enough capital to finance a village coffee business he was organizing and locate a coffee roaster in Los Angeles who would process coffee directly for this business. He hoped that the village could bypass the middlemen in the coffee business and market directly to California's noted coffee connoisseurs.
Fernandez's path to L.A. stopped abruptly in the desert
near Three Points. Dehydrated and losing his vision, he
lay down to die as others in his party slogged on toward
the Golden State. Fortunately, a Border Patrol agent
found him, unconscious but still breathing, and
transported him to St. Mary's Hospital.
His journey is typical of the hazards awaiting many
illegal border crossers and suggests how more of these
ill-fated journeys could be avoided.
I met Fernandez at a board meeting of the Just Trade Center in Agua Prieta, Sonora, the sister city of Douglas, Arizona. After recovering in Tucson, he had come to work with Just Coffee to learn how to create a cooperative in which families in the village community could ship their crop directly to buyers in the United States. Mexico's economy is expanding and its infrastructure for business is improving, but it's still a long way from providing opportunities to most. Linking Mexican small-scale production directly to foreign consumers is one path toward success for these entrepreneurs.
As Southwesterners riding the immigration wave, we in
the UA planning program are researching policies that
will reduce migration to the United States from Mexico.
Policies that support local producers can create wealth
in Mexico directly, replacing the need for rural workers
to seek opportunity here.
Daniel Cifuentes, the director of Just Coffee in Agua
Prieta; Tommy Bassett, a former maquiladora manager;
Angel Valencia and Mark Adams, ministers from
Presbyterian Border Ministries; members of the
Presbyterian and Catholic churches in Phoenix, Tucson
and Agua Prieta; the sales manager from Just Coffee and
several of its members; and two planners from the
University of Arizona have started the Just Trade Center
to replicate the success of Just Coffee. We are working
together to help two more coffee cooperatives organize.
Buying directly from Mexican producers creates income on
the farm and reduces the demand for migration. And
direct links between U.S. consumers and small Mexican
producers offer immediate results in reducing migration.
Holiday shoppers might want to look for presents at
justcoffee.org.
Write to Laura Huntoon at huntoon@u.arizona.edu.
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