At UCIRI, we value nature as the giver of life, provider of sustenance, and the first step in well-being.  We are knowledgeable of its delicate details, and from it we obtain food and clothing, make our own tools and we produce artistic creations that are of high cultural and community value.

For nearly 19 years now we have come to realize that before UCIRI, we had forgotten much of this knowledge and fallen victim to the modern world, where accumulation of money and material goods is what seemed to be important, exploiting and destroying the natural environment to do so.   

With UCIRI, we want to rebuild our relationship with the environment so that it may be like that of our ancestors, and to adapt this relationship to our present circumstances so 
that we may live in harmony we that which 
gives us life.

It is for this reason that we have adopted organic agriculture both as a means of labour and of education.  Organic agriculture comes naturally to us, because to us, the earth is our mother who nurtures and strengthens us, and we therefore cultivate her using natural methods.  By this manner, mother earth's offerings can be born and grow into fruit which gives us life and plants which give us health.  We care for her, cultivate her, and defend her as an inheritance that we want to leave to our children.

If the earth suffers, then so will its children, with the price being their joy and well-being.  The earth does not belong to human beings, rather humans belong to the earth.

It is for this earth that we are involved in the use of organic compost, where organic material ferments until it decomposes completely. The result is a nutrient rich non-chemical fertilizer.

Besides this, we also do the following:

1.  Cleaning the ground area: clearing only those plants harmful to other plants.

2.  Pruning coffee plants: to insure health, growth, production and harvest yield.

3.  Selective thinning: eliminating old and mal-producing coffee plants.

4.  Suckering: removing the shoots, leaving only 2 or 3 strong healthy ones.

5.  Renovation: planting new coffee plants once the older generation has surpassed its peak.

6.  Composting:  depending on the condition of the plants.

7.  Living barriers:  a dense hedge of plants planted on slopes to retain soil and compost, preventing erosion.

8.  Construction of terraces.

9.  Application of lime and ash.

10.  Shade-cover regulation.

There are rules and criteria set out by IFOAM for the control of organic products.

Since 1988 we have been certified by Naturland (private certification) and in 1993 we became certified by IMO-Control Switzerland, the official certification organization of the European Union (under the law UE 2092/91).

Since we made contracts with these certification organizations to certify our coffee, we therefore took on responsibilities and commitments to practice proper agricultural techniques that would guarantee our coffee as being organic.  To help inspectors and to insure our own compliance, UCIRI's internal control of campesinos was formed as a way to inform and inspect each member.  In doing so we hope to maintain our market and care for our natural resources.  Now, we have our own certification body, CERTIMEX, headquartered in Oaxaca, recently accredited ISO 65, and we are also certified by KRAV of Sweden.

Organic agriculture provides us with economic advantages because consumers are demanding healthier products of higher quality and free of contaminants, and they consider the purchase to be an investment in their health.

We have seen that it is possible to produce with greater efficiency and less costs even under the conditions of small-scale agriculture.

We have achieved a demand and valuation for our products that consumers are able to differentiate, and we are able to sell these products at reasonable prices.  

This has been a stimulus that has fostered organic agriculture.

It has not been agricultural advances that have transformed the farmer, but rather the farmer that has transformed agriculture and carried out the advancements.

The challenge of small-scale farmer production will be resolved when governments realize that the farmer is the subject of development and not the instrument.

We have gone on learning and acquiring experience in the past 19 years, labouring for our culture, and have been able to transform our natural coffee production into organic.