How is it to be an organic coffee farmer?

 This is Gabriel Calderon I Have worked in the coffee industry since I am a kid. I was born on a coffee farm that belong in the family since 1950's

So I started same as many many kids in this town. Being a son of a coffee farmer. Playing around the fields And soon Working on the fields. Maybe they call it now child labor. But I grew up enjoying, Learning And I didn't feel I had to work and work hard. So that gave me the courage the knowledge and the enthusiasm to keep farming.

Same as many kids nowadays, They are told to leave the farms to make money. My dad told me that when I was a teenager. Because our changed to organic farming was going to make us lose our farm. So I studied English A little bit of computers. Work for a Company for a few years and then realize I am missing a lot by not being on the farm. So I came back work with my dad And try some projects by myself starting roasting coffee which we didn't do before, Started learning what else we can add to farming to make it good and sustainable for the family. So it didn't take long to actually build something very different Something that work something that help the farm something that even my dad was getting benefit from. we started roasting our coffee selling at the farmers markets The fact that I studied English before made me think about making a coffee tour and then it started bringing customers knowledge information from abroad And that started bringing more and more ideas That show us how to find how to make it possible and how to improve the farm and use new type of farming as well. 

Becoming an organic coffee producer involves determination in what you believe. And this means you are going to face lots of arguments about why not using chemicals and how your neighbors react to it. It is sometimes hearing you are doing things the wrong way. 

So now it is a whole different story. Organic farming has finally payoff And now we learned what our mistakes were. A quick change without knowledge was devastating for our family. My dad is staying in organic farming because of health and now It is the best thing happened on the farm

Being an organic coffee producer Is great. Changing from chemicals to organic nor really. But now the crisis is over and there are new ideas to continue

Now we even see the production with coffee as a fruit that we can use and we should not waste it. It is delicious and we can use it for manny other purposes like making wine making marmalades and a lot of other things.

So now the coffee production in my life is something we're enjoying everyday we can pass it on to the next genaration and tell them it is possible to make it liveable to make it healthy to make it less wasteful to make it sustainable  And why not profitable but changes have to be taking. 

Sadly Not every story has a happy ending. There are lots of neighbors cutting down their coffee Tearing down the trees to make more production Because there's not enough people who care about sustainable products out there. So if you are a coffee drinker and you wanna help this farmers pay more attention what kind of coffee you buy And why not getting it the closer as possible from the source. 

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