Honduras – Medium

Finca Humana (the Human Farm) is the first thing you will hear about Café Organico Marcala, S.A. (COMSA) if you make your way to visit this cooperative in Marcala, Honduras. The wellbeing of humans is foundational to the COMSA philosophy and educating more than 1,500 producer-members to successfully live in harmony with nature is everywhere at COMSA. It starts with the La Fortaleza, the COMSA biodynamic demonstration farm where the focus of transferring knowledge takes place through week- long seminars called Pata de Chucho (pawprints left by a stray dog), which aptly reveals COMSA’s dogged exploration for human productivity in harmony with nature. The trailblazing ideas for using organic matter to productively cultivate high quality coffee is only a sliver of what COMSA teaches about the power of nature through the Finca Humana philosophy. COMSA dedicates significant funding from the proceeds of coffee sales to run a cutting-edge international school dedicated to filling children’s minds with possibility and training them to be the future leaders of Finca Humana. What makes it so good? The fundamentals: traceability to the Marcala region, which is a protected designation of origin (DENOMINACION DE ORIGEN CAFE DE MARCALA); meticulous post-harvest hand sorting of cherry; cherry floating to remove less dense beans; proper fermentation; long drying times; and a healthy dose of the COMSA philosophy and training.