Chiapas: trouble brewing.

• Author: Atkinson, Carla
• Position: Chiapas, Mexico

On January 1, the little-known Mexican state of Chiapas made front pages around the world as armed peasants occupied four towns, struggling against a government they felt ignored their poverty and a system that had discriminated against indigenous people for decades.

Caught in the crossfire were hundreds of peasants whose desperation was equally great, but whose chosen means to fight it were different. Members of the local coffee farmer cooperative, Union de Ejidos de la Selva, have been working towards organic certification of their coffees for eight years, hoping to achieve economic development by increasing the value of their product.

These farmers formed their own company, Aztec Harvests Coffee, to sell their best beans directly to the U.S. market. Along with other co-ops, they began selling their coffee to specialty coffee roasters, as well as Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream. The Chiapan co-op scheduled an organic inspection for January, and looked forward to its first year as a certified organic producer.

Unfortunately, the need of a few was too great to wait for the gradual change these farmers planned, and rebellion came to Chiapas on January 1. Hopefully, the Union de Ejidos will still have a chance to demonstrate the value of organic cultivation as a means of sustainable economic development.

This account by David Griswold, the la Selva co-op's American liaison and general manager of Aztec Harvests, was sent to World Watch shortly after the Chiapas rebellion. World Watch has been reporting for several years on the struggles of indigenous peoples to defend ancestral lands against exploitation and despoliation. But while native cultures have been shown to play key roles in protecting natural resources and biodiversity, the connection between the economic health of these cultures and the long-term security of the global resource base is rarely discussed in the media. As the livelihoods of these cultures continue to decline, their struggles typically don't reach the front pages or evening newscasts until they have reached the flashpoint of violent confrontation.

Some observers see the Chiapas outbreak as a harbinger of things to come. Political commentator Noam Chomsky, of the...