The political ecology of shaded coffee plantations: conservation narratives and the everyday-lived-experience of farmworkers

ABSTRACT

Shade-grown coffee conserves biodiversity and often improves peasant livelihoods in Latin America. However, farmworkers have been overwhelmingly overlooked, despite being a vulnerable and marginalized actor in the coffee production chain, facing food and labor inequalities. This ethnographic research explores how farmworkers perceive biodiversity conservation in labor-intensive organic coffee systems. I examine the tensions that arise when conservation narratives meet the everyday-lived-experience of farmworkers, emphasizing material and symbolic effects on farmworkers' lives. Through questioning shade-grown organic coffee as a just imaginary, I expose contradictions and trade-offs of biodiversity conservation in labor-intensive systems, relevant as we transition to more sustainable food systems.

KEYWORDS:

• Conservation narratives
• shade-grown organic coffee
• farmworkers
• plantation labor
• political ecology of agriculture

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Andrew Szasz, Madeleine Fairbairn and Stacy M. Philpott at the University of California, Santa Cruz, as well as Aaron Augsburger at the University of South Florida, who provided insightful comments and ideas to improve my work at different stages of this research. This work would not have been possible without the openness, kindness and critical eye provided by farmworkers and plantation owners during my research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 It is important to point out that not all shade-grown coffee systems are the same sociologically speaking. In this article, I discuss biodiversity conservation practices and narratives only in the context of a plantation system in the Soconusco region, and acknowledge that their effect on peoples may be different in peasant systems, were families are self-sustainably equipped with their means of production and use their own labor power to cultivate their land, diversify beyond coffee, and organize to get better prices.

2 In the broader literature, other authors refer to this conservation narrative as traditional conservation narrative, in the sense that it is a long-standing approach (Campbell 2002c). However, in this article I exclude the word traditional, as it might be confused with shade-grown coffee management in its traditional sense.

3 The crisis narrative, as suggested by Berdej, Andrachuk, and Armitage 2015, places a strong emphasis on the destruction of ecosystems and biodiversity as a result of anthropogenic change. Under this world view, there is a sense of natural balance that must be protected and preserved, where the role of humans is seen as antagonistic to these goals.

4 Working and living conditions of plantation laborers are often unacceptable, lacking basic living requirements like clean water and healthy food (Gresser and Tickell 2002, Renard 2010). Commonly farmworkers can’t unionize to negotiate wages, and women get a lower pay for the same amount of work (30% less in Honduras according to Gresser and Tickell 2002). Moreover, occupational injuries from bending for long periods of time, climbing or lifting are common, but lack the necessary medical attention (Villarejo and Baron 1999).

5 Farmworker’s knowledge of the ecologies of the coffee plantation converges with that of owners, scientists and tourists, which provide meaning to this space. Together, we co-produce ecological imaginaries of the coffee plantation.

7 Some of the plants used by farmworkers in the coffee plantation include: Pacaya, Flor de Izote, Hierba Mora, Pata de Paloma, Hongo Blanclo de Izote, Hongo Oreja, Verdolaga, Berro, Tepejilote, Hierba Buena, Quilete, and Capote. Many of these plants are gathered in or around the coffee plantation while at work, and are used to mix with frijoles, boiled or fried with eggs, inside of tamales and mixed with pork, chicken, or inside of soups.

8 The Caporal is a worker in charge of crews of farmworkers. He carries a horn-like instrument made of plastic, which produces a sound similar to a trumpet, and it is used to assign sections of land that need to be harvested. This horn is also used to let farmworkers know it is time for breakfast, or time for a break to drink water.

9 Farmworkers and finqueros expressed their concern about low exchange rates between Mexican pesos and Guatemalan Quetzales, which encourages labor shortages in coffee plantations. A large number of farmworkers mention that many of them prefer to look for work in Guatemala or migrate to the United States.

Additional information

Funding

This work was funded by The Mexican Council for Science and Technology (CONACYT) (Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología) and a UC-MEXUS Scholarship for Graduate Studies.

Notes on contributors

Esteli Jimenez-Soto

Esteli Jimenez-Soto is a Postdoctoral Scholar in the Department of Environmental Studies at the University of California Santa Cruz. Her research lies at the intersection of agroecology, food systems and the political ecology of agriculture. Through the study of coffee agroecosystems in Mexico and the strawberry industry in the US, she examines struggles to create a food system that is both socially and environmentally just.