Meet the farmers fighting for the future of our favourite foods
Climate change is making some of our favourite foods – like coffee, bananas and chocolate – harder and harder to grow.
Combined with deeply unfair trade, communities growing these crops are being pushed to the brink. But through Fairtrade, farmers are finding ways to stand together.
Liliane and Mauro da Silva are a coffee-growing, daughter-raising, future-focused team. As husband and wife, they farm land in Brazil’s Sul de Minas region. It was what Liliane’s father did, and she wants her own teenage girls to be able to carry on the proud family tradition of producing top-quality coffee.
Facing challenges together
‘We are not in charge of the climate, but we can collaborate a lot with it.’
However, farming is an ever-more unstable profession, and the weather is getting increasingly unpredictable:
- Farming costs are going up
- Coffee prices are increasingly volatile
- and the effects of the climate crisis are deepening.
- Fellow coffee farmers in other parts of Brazil have recently suffered from unusually heavy frosts!
‘We live and own property in an area very favourable for coffee, but, even so, we suffer a lot with the climate’s setbacks,’ says Liliane.
She and her colleagues in the Fairtrade co-operative are trying out different methods for protecting their harvests.
As well as financial support from Fairtrade, they also receive expertise and information about what’s been successful for coffee farmers elsewhere. They also have a long-term trading relationship with a UK coffee buyer, which they value greatly. As Liliane puts it: ‘We are not in charge of the climate, but we can collaborate a lot with it.’
Taking care of the land
Liliane’s neighbour and fellow Fairtrade farmer Maria Paul agrees.
‘When the producers take better care of their crops and of nature itself, it will be more resistant to overcome these… environmental disasters.’ For Luiz, another co-operative member, it’s changed how he thinks about farming: ‘Today I think about taking care of my piece of land… Not just the coffee tree, but the soil. This opened my mind a lot.’
A warrior for women
In the past Liliane has struggled to see the value she can bring both to the farm and their partnership.
When they encountered Fairtrade, she found the encouragement to challenge traditions about male and female roles in farming. Liliane became treasurer on the co-operative board. She says, ‘That, for me, was an empowerment… I think my stay there made other women see that they are also capable.’
Liliane is seen as a role model for women in her community. ‘My daughters’ friends, they call me boss. This makes me very proud…’
‘This is the Liliane I want to pass on to the world, a warrior who fights for young people.’
Fairtrade Fortnight 2023 is taking place 27 February – 12 March 2023.
Making the small switch to Fairtrade supports producers in protecting the future of some of our most-loved food and the planet.