Focus Group with Community Farmers

Ok, Ok so I know I'm way out of date with the blogging. Truth is, I don't get down to town as much as I'd like, and when I do its configuring the GPS, editing my survey, or deleting listserve junk email. This past weekend was the big focus group with coffee farmers from the surrounding communities that I've been building up to for some time now. Long story short, in my eyes it went really well. Expect a full report within the week. Next order of business is finishing my survey. The past few days we've been testing it with families in Los Marrianitos for figuring out what questions work and which ones don't. This is an invaluable, but lengthy process. My new assistant, Rubalina a 20yr local girl is a good worker, but needs practice so we'll run through it two more times with families today. As of now it takes two hours to complete, not including setting up a time with the family and walking the farm with the farmer after wards, which with the recent heavy afternoon rains has proved difficult. Ok, I'm going to load some pictures up to let them speak for the past couple of weeks (post the below into your browser above) then blog again come weekend. Peace and Love, Lee

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=leehgross&target=ALBUM&id=5353123557209603265&authkey=Gv1sRgCJ6zxqeuqqul1AE&feat=email

Meeting with the "Junta Directiva"

Yesterday,was my first meeting with the “Junta Directiva” or “board” of ASCAJA the association of coffee producers I’ll be working with over the next two months. Imagine a small office with a concrete floor, men in jeans, plastic chairs all lined up in a circle, with the distinct smell of coffee roasting drifting in from the room next door and the sounds of an approaching thunderstorm in the distance. After introductions, business commenced, the mood was direct and I was a bit intimidated by the CODOCAFE (the largest coffee association in the DR) guys’ presentation who had showed up unexpectedly stealing most of my time. Regardless, the last ten minutes were mine and for you Spanish speakers, my prepared notes are below. They represent my introduction for the next couple of months with the outlined main objectives. After stumbling over my first few words, which the members in unison helped me with, my presentation was generally welcomed by the board with offers of assistance. I encouraged them that my study would focus on the “bienestar” or well-being of the family, offering to go beyond just coffee price and into the diverse livelihood strategies of their members. This information would allow us to support farmers in a variety of ways. My ears were open. Their issues seemed much larger than what I would ever be able to offer them. Finance, this year's harvest had ended and farmers were left with no funds for managing their farms with the necessary pruning, weed control and fertilization needed for healthy coffee production. Not to mention, last year’s poor yields due to excessive rains had put the association in the hole with a number of “banca privadas” banks or loan sharks so to speak. Both these issues raised grave danger for the association’s future and for assisting many farmers in their planned transition to a more diverse coffee agroecosystem, much less even keeping their farms. For most it seems (even one farmer on the board) it was time to do something else.


El reunión con la Junta Directiva de ASCAJA 6/17/09 @ 2pm en Jarabacoa

Introduction:
• Soy licenciado, Lee Gross, Tengo 27 anos, Estoy hacienda una maestría en recursos naturales a la Universidad de Vermont en los Estados Unidos
• Mis profesores de la Universidad de Vermont tienen mucha experiencia con la producción de café, conservación y estudios de economía en Centroamérica y el Caribe.
• Con su permiso y apoyo quiera entrevistar 48 cafetaleros de ASCAJA con un cuestionario socioeconómica del hogar y un evaluación ecológico de la finca
• Queremos que esta investigación sea compartida entre los productores, investigadores, y compradores de café. Será un proceso participativo (PAR)

Esta investigación tiene cinco objetivos más importantes:

1. Estudiar la relación entre tipo de manejo, tipo de producción, y el bienestar de las familias cafetaleras.
Es decir, por ejemplo ¿los productores de café orgánico viven mejor, si o no?

2. Conseguir fondos de la Universidad de Vermont o otras fuentes para apoyar esta investigación por el largo plazo. Soy el primer investigador a venir y quiero buscar información de base.
Es decir, crear un banco de información socioeconómica y ecológica de los miembros de ASCAJA.

3. Conectar los miembros de ASCAJA con técnicos para mejorar el cultivo de café, como control de calidad y transición a café orgánico, y también para buscar mercados alternativos con mejores precios

4. Apoyar comunidades cafetaleras en áreas identificadas por la investigación de los hogares.
Por ejemplo apoyo en educación, clínicas de salud, y acceso al crédito

5. Informar a la asociación de ASCAJA, y asociaciones gubermentales (IDIAF, CODOCAFE, SECRETARIA DE MEDIO AMBIENTE Y RECURSOS NATURALES) de los resultados de esta investigación para mejorar la política que apoye la producción de café y el bienestar de las familias cafetaleras.

Ahora vamos hacer una actividad: (preguntas para uds):

• En ASCAJA, Cuales son áreas mas importantes para investigación, capacitación y ayuda?
• Que significa "bienestar" para uds y sus miembros?
Es decir, Indicios de bienestar en el corto y largo plazo..
• Design participatory project evaluation indicators: short term (8 months, 2 years, 5 years) long term. Ex: education, health, quality control, certification, new markets

My number in the DR

Cell phones are cheap and the evenings are slow in the country.

Call me anytime, very cheap via SKYPE.

829.990.0374

Just as I remembered it.

Dylan and Meghan the two other volunteers on the farm from Middlebury College picked me up at the airport on Thursday. To my suprise I was up on the farm by that afternoon. Funny I never thought about it, but this was my first time returning to a foreign country. Undoubtedly the same smells of 2 cycle engine smoke spewing from motorcycles, the same sounds of children playing loudly and roosters crowing, and the same feelings of a place far different from home abound. The high mountain country is peaceful. My new home is beautiful, an open cabana with a kitchen and a view of the mtns, although not without its fair share of unidentifiable insects. The neighbors below are three Haitian boys who work on the farm, music flows up from their room into mine throughout the day and we´ve worked out a deal for two Creole words for two Spanish or English words a day.

Today I´m down in La Vega gathering information from the agricultural extension service, IDIAF. The past four days I´ve been pouring over the Dominican literature on coffee communities and today hope to connect with its authors. It will be important for me to first understand the macroeconomic political history, structures and processes that drive this system before working with the local communities of the Pico Duarte over the next few months.

A la Republica Dominicana..

After a fabulous month in Burlington, VT farming at Open Heart, then past week here in Washington, DC catching up with old friends and attending the USSEE Conference I'm finally off to the Dominican Republic (DR) for the summer's research. On Saturday as I purchased a new shade hat and long sleeve travel shirt I couldn't help but feel an overwhelming sense of adventure come about me. It was a feeling synonymous with my earliest childhood dreams of becoming a famous scientist, dressed in khaki, crouched in the jungle logging field entries and that of my first few days with the Forest Service when I realized I was "getting paid" to hike. This next new adventure feels like something I have been working towards my entire life, perhaps in many respects I have, which is both exciting and humbling.

My work in the DR over the next few months will utilize an interdisciplinary research framework to better understand the interactions between social and ecological process that contribute to the livelihoods of coffee farmers of the Pico Duarte region. In broadest of terms, how does the way farmers choose to practice agriculture affect their lives, given the social, political and ecological context in which they live? In order to access this, I will conduct with members of a local coffee cooperative 60 household socio-economic surveys in addition to biodiversity assessments of their food plots and coffee farms. To introduce this research and determine the appropriate households, we’ll hold a focus group with community leaders on June 27th. For greater details on the background, methodology and research questions consult here.

By tomorrow afternoon I’ll be down on the farm. The next few weeks will require lots of organizing and introductions on my part to the community as an outside researcher. A warm and hospitable people, traditional Dominican greetings almost always include an offer of “cafecito” a dark shot of sugar rich coffee, luckily I’ve been painstakingly practicing this in Burlington over the past few months… wish me luck and stay tuned.

USSEE Conference 2009, Washington, DC

This week I attended the US Society for Ecological Economics Conference in Washington, DC. Entitled "Science and Policy for a Sustainable Future" this four day conference housed at American University was attended by more than 100 representatives from universities, government agencies, nonprofits and the private sector.

In an attempt to shift traditional "growth" economic thinking towards that of a "steady-state economy" Herman Daly, the father of ecological economics provided a compelling lunch time presentation on Monday. Other noteworthy presenters included Pavan Sukhdev of UNEP, Bob Costanza of the Gund Institute and author Bill Mckibben. Topics ranged from biodiversity conservation and human welfare to fisheries management and developing new indicators for economic progress. Students and researchers from the Gund Institute for Ecological Economics at the University of Vermont provided a strong presence at the conference with more than 15 presentations.

This conference was important for my upcoming research in the Dominican Republic providing me with the opportunity to network, receive feedback and attend more than a dozen lectures on approaches for accessing rural livelihoods, agricultural sustainability and measures to value ecosystem services flows.

Jeff Frank from CDAE has a really nice overview of the conference on his website.. be sure to check it out. www.economixt.com