The Mountain of Birds is part of a landscape of steep ravines and high ridges that have the effect of isolating communities within them. The cooperative's 24 member communities, therefore, are oriented along the length of a ravine within an hour's walk from one another, although the walk to central transportation out of the region is closer to three hours. But the Mayan are no strangers to isolation-it has defined the course of their post-colonial history. From landlessness to violent military attacks on their communities, Mexico's indigenous people have struggled to achieve stability in their lives through local autonomy and infrastructure, and Mut Vitz Cooperative is part of this effort.

Guided by the hope of improving their communities' economic and social well being, the cooperative's goals are to increase all members' knowledge of organic farming practices in order for each to become certified organic, to improve the processing and organizational infrastructure of the coop, and to improve the potential for members to achieve fair trade prices on their coffee.

Mut Vitz Coop has surmounted several hurdles since getting started, including getting an export license, purchasing some processing equipment, moving members toward organic certification, finding fair trade buyers such as Peace Coffee, and building a highly organized and democratic cooperative body. The coop continues to struggle, however, with a shortage of capital. The coop lacks telephone lines and transport vehicles as well as a complete set of coffee processing equipment, so it rents equipment and borrows money from "coyotes," or brokers, paying them back with surplus coffee after export. But coyotes, pejoratively named for their exploitive tendencies, take advantage of the coop's lack of economic independence.

According to the former president of Mut Vitz Cooperative's Board of Directors, Lucio Gonzalez Ruiz, coyotes "set the price for our coffee and the manner of payment; they cheat us when they weigh the coffee; they won't pay the full price because they claim the coffee is not dry or it is spotted. Right now the price for coffee is extremely low [March, 2000]. We get nine pesos a kg for coffee if it is dry and clean, seven pesos if it has spots. Our coffee is not spotted, we know spots are yellow or black, and our coffee is not like this and it is not fermented; it is good. The buyers say it is bad only to pay the lower price of seven pesos."

For the high quality coffee Mut Vitz producers ship to fair trade roasters in the United States, on the other hand, they earn 18 pesos. Extra money from those sales is invested into a fund used to purchase equipment for the coop and to lend to coop members at zero interest for emergencies like illness or when food is scarce. The coop also plans to spend earnings from fair trade sales to construct clinics and schools, and to improve nutrition through increased plantings of vegetables, beans and corn and raising small farm animals for local consumption.

Peace Coffee's relationship with Mut Vitz Coop began when we visited the growers in 1999, just as they were shipping their first couple containers of Fair Trade Certified coffee to the United States. It was an exciting but tense time, as military pressure against them and other indigenous communities in Chiapas was high. On the road to Mut Vitz, we passed through a few military checkpoints where our identities were noted. But despite a constant wariness of outside threats to their community, they were generous and warm hosts. They stuffed us silly with food, although they were not rich in it, and we stayed up late into the night sharing stories and laughing over topics well beyond the point of business.

In 2001, we imported our first shipment of coffee from Mut Vitz after a substantial number of farmers had become certified organic. As the coop gradually gets the remainder of its farmers certified, Peace Coffee will accordingly increase its order of Mut Vitz organic, Fair Trade Certified coffee. Meanwhile, the member-farmers of Mut Vitz Cooperative stand poised to reach their goal of local autonomy through social, environmental, and economic sustainability. According to Peace Coffee Director, Scott Patterson, their internal communication is highly organized. "They're unbelievably committed to working as a coop. …They work so darn hard."


Hannah Lewis is a freelance writer and fair trade organizer in Minneapolis. She has apprenticed on small farms from Minnesota to England to Cuba, and managed the produce department at a Twin Cities natural foods cooperative. She can be reached by email at lewis_hannah@hotmail.com and by phone at 612-385-7706

Contact Peace Coffee:   info@peacecoffee.com