When the world gets closer.

We help you see farther.

Sign up to our expressly international daily newsletter.

InterNations

UNBIAS THE NEWS

Unbias The News if a feminist cross-border journalism platform by Hostwriter.
In Mexico, Indigenous Women Are Saving Your Morning Coffee, One Plant At A Time
food / travel
Magdalena Rojo

In Mexico, Indigenous Women Are Saving Your Morning Coffee, One Plant At A Time

Coffee producers in Oaxaca, Mexico, are adapting to climate change by restoring their coffee plantations in agroforestry systems. While the costs of their work are increasing, the price of coffee is not.

OAXACA — Seven women gather beneath the shade of Victórica Ortiz López’ (58) house, their woven bags slung over their arms and ready for the fields. Speaking in Mixteco, the majority of these women are above fifty and still prefer the traditional indigenous language over Spanish.

In Guadalupe Buenavista, a village of around 400 people, coffee production has been the main source of income for multiple generations. “My grandfather, who is already 80, spent all his life growing coffee and so did his father,” says one of the youngest coffee producers, Paula Pérez Ortiz (34), while we wait for a pick-up to take us along the bumpy, unpaved roads.

Once we leave the village for the coffee plantations, forests are everywhere around us. Here, coffee plants grow underneath trees.

Mexico is famous for its arabica coffee, often grown in the shade of different kinds of trees instead of monocultures, where only coffee plants would grow in one plantation. The country is amongst the biggest exporters of organic coffee in the world, with Germany being one of its main importers.

Watch VideoShow less