We spent it visiting Coopeagri farms, processing plants, an environmental protection project and having more meetings with their warm caring board members.

The Penas Blancas River Project is a reforestation that is being funded by the Fair Trade premium from sales of their sugar cane. It is located near a natural preserve where a famous naturalist lived with his wife. He wrote 35 books including bird identification guides and his house is a museum. we saw many incredible tropical birds there. They are also using some of the premium funds on a project to find a variety of sugar cane that is resistant to a fungus that has been destroying their crops. They loan seed to their member farmers who then grow it in trials. If it is succesful, they save seed from their plants and give it back to the Co-op.

We also visited the sugar cane processing plant and had a very thorough tour. One thing I learned is that the whole plant is powered by the burning of the sugar cane fibers that have already had the juice extracted. In the future, they hope to generate extra electricity that they can sell back into the grid.

In our closing meetings with the Coopeagri board members, they asked for our impressions of their Co-op and what suggestions we could make for them to improve. We all said they were amazing and that we could learn from them. They spoke about trying to make their members feel invested in the Co-op, a sentiment we in the co-op movement in the US have also expressed. They also spoke about solidarity and the desire to work with organizations in the US and other countries and that their livelihood was really in the hands of consumers.

Tomorrow we're moving to a different area and I will write more as long as I have internet access. Buenos noche!