Field Notes: How This Farmer is Revolutionizing Sustainable Coffee Production 

Maria Esther Saut and Pascual Castillo are the proprietors of Finca La Fortaleza, a beautiful model farm in Chiapas, Mexico. Finca La Fortaleza was born as a response to a devastating outbreak of the coffee fungus Rust, which wiped out all of the small producers in Chiapas in 2014. They hired as many as they could to help them transform their 266-acre cattle farm back into coffee production. To do this, they first reforested the entire area, which in turn reestablished the natural habitat. In addition, they work with more than 2,000 small producers in the region, providing them technical advice and assistance to keep them one step ahead of climate-change induced plagues, and to improve the quality of their coffee.