Food Security Solutions
Foro de Seguridad Alimentaria
Scaling Solutions for Greater Food Security
Sustainable Harvest pays growers prices well above the Fair Trade minimum price for their coffee; yet, when we visit coffee-producing communities in Latin America and Africa, farmers still tell us that they struggle to provide food for their children at certain times of year. We realized that simply paying a just price for coffee was not enough. We wanted to help farmers provide food for their families all year round. We began working on mushroom production projects in Tanzania and peer training in Central America.
Sustainable Harvest began our work in food security by leveraging the Let’s Talk Coffee® format—peer-led, hands-on training combined with technological innovations and a market-based approach—to scale initiatives that provide coffee farmers with greater food security. Sustainable Harvest invited approximately 60 people from cooperatives across the region to the Food Security Solutions event in Matagalpa, Nicaragua. There, participants learned innovative, effective strategies to improve food security that they can replicate in their own communities.
Read the short article that Michael Sheridan of Catholic Relief Services wrote in Fresh Cup Magazine about Food Security Solutions after he participated in the training event.
Food Security Solutions is a not-for-profit event, managed under the Sustainable Origins program in partnership wtih the Charitable Partnership Fund.
Event Highlights
Workshops:
- Mushroom Cultivation: Participants learned to grow protein-rich mushrooms in coffee pulp, a by-product of coffee processing. This “Pulp to Protein” technique won the Sustainability Award from the Specialty Coffee Association of America in 2009. Irene Maldonado of ACODIHUE cooperative in Guatemala taught the workshop.
- Organic Fertilizers: Soil fertility is the foundation of all strong, profitable farms. Participants learned to create inexpensive, high impact organic fertilizers by cultivating micro-organisms and composting local farm waste. Workshop trainers included Edgar Blandon, manager of the Gaicashi Fertilizer Plant in Ibague, Colombia and Lenin Tocto of the Chirinos co-op in Peru.
- Organic honey production: Participants learned to produce honey, as the sale of organic honey generates additional income for families while requiring minimal land area and few start-up resources. Workshop trainers included Professor Dewey Caron, an Entymologist from the University of Oregon, and Alfredo Contreras from the organization CAMPO in Mexico.
- Family Gardens: Participants learned to diversify their vegetable gardens to improve nutrition and manage pests with a focus on permaculture techniques. Workshop trainers included Clemente Santiago Paz of Sustainable Harvest and Juan Nelson Rojas of El Salvador.
Specialized Sessions:
- A panel of leading international financiers of smallholder agriculture, including Rosaria Castellon of Root Capital and Hugo Villela from Shared Interest, offered participants information on how to access capital for food security projects and how to assess the benefits and costs of farm investments.
- A discussion on climate change, coffee, and food crops, provided participants with the opportunity to hear from experts and practitioners such as Cesar Castillo of Catholic Relief Services, Peter Laderach from the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), and Santiago Dolmus of CECOCAFEN cooperative as they shared the best strategies to lessen the impacts of climate change on farm production.
- A workshop on marketing food products in local and international markets with Anna Paula Diniz, founder of DoDesign-s, and a designer and communications consultant for Slow Food® in South America.
Food Security Solutions Impact
Food Security Solutions will benefit hundreds of families in Central America, providing them with new skills and strategies to lessen their seasonal food insecurity. Sustainable Harvest is currrently building a webpage where presentations, video and other digital media will be availableas tools to help participants replicate their training to further scale the impacts beyond the initial group of event participants.