PERU ORGANIC SMITHSONIAN BIRD FRIENDLY LA FLORIDA

Here is an epic history of coffee culture you will want to drink to. It starts with a cooperative called Cooperativa Agraria Cafetalera La Florida established in 1966 in the province of Chanchamayo. La Florida was one of the very first coffee cooperatives formed in the 1960s because individual farmers could not negotiate fair prices from the local coffee buyers. By the 1990s, La Florida would evolve from negotiating better prices with local buyers to selling coffee directly to international buyers. The cooperative used premiums to address the social needs of farmers in the rugged coffeelands with investments in electricity, roads, schools, and hospitals. And then all of their success was nearly erased with a decade of political violence. In 2000, producers started to return to their farms and rebuild La Florida with an emphasis on educating the next generation to manage the cooperative, which brought in an era of technification at the farm level, in coffee processing, quality control, and democratic governance. Today, La Florida and its 800 plus members are a model for cooperatives throughout Peru with an international reputation for quality, environmental training programs, healthcare initiatives, life insurance, access to credit, and educational opportunities for the next generation of producers.