This is a longer follow up to a post published Monday. Please note that voting ends Friday.

Our proposal to help family coffee farmers in Latin America adapt to climate change has been selected as a finalist in the Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Climate Challenge!

Many thanks to all those who voted to support our project concept during the first round of voting. Now we are on to the second round, and you have only until Friday, April 3, to vote to make it a winner! (Note: click on the “Support it” button.)

The Issue.
Climate change is changing the face of agriculture all over the planet. Since a specific crop can only thrive under certain environmental conditions, the increases in average temperatures and the radical changes in rainfall are changing our understanding of what can grow well where—what we call “land-use patterns.” The outlook for coffee farmers in Mexico and Central America is pretty grim…
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CRS regional information officer Robyn Fieser filed this report from Guatemala:

Angel Benjamin “Minchu,” a member of organic coffee cooperative Santa Anita La Union, and Luis Rhor of CRS Guatemala evaluate a young coffee plant. Photo by Robyn Fieser/CRS

I must admit, the prospect of visiting a coffee cooperative formed by ex-guerilla combatants who fought during Guatemala’s 36-year internal armed conflict was exciting. It was enough to make me pack my six-month old and every toy I could find into the Toyota 4runner and head toward the country’s Western Highlands.

I knew Santa Anita La Unión was a community of 32 farming families which had received land the government distributed as part of the Peace Accords in 1996. The largely Mayan community, which grows organic coffee and bananas and runs an eco-tourism program, is well known among the Americans who come to Guatemala to help start cooperatives of female weavers and teach in local schools. There’s a certain mystique surrounding it. I’ve been told, for example, that it’s a model for how communal living cultivates self-reliance and alleviates poverty.
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Do you support Fair Trade?  Love to drink coffee?  Take 30 seconds to support 7,000 farmers and vote for the CRS Coffee and Climate Change Initiative. 

It’s easy: 1. Follow this link to the proposal on Justmeans, 2. Click “Support It,” 3. Create a free account, 4. Promote the idea to your friends and family.

CRS and coffee farmers worldwide appreciate your support!

(Note: Voting ends Saturday, March 21.)

Here’s a note from our Fair Trade Friends. We plan to keep you posted on this for the duration.

We have taken the first step to responding to a recent climate change RFP from Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, and I am writing to ask you to make your voices heard and vote for the joint CIAT/CRS submission!
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