Campesinos y Neo-Campesinos: The Reconstruction of Coffee Farming in an Age of Depeasantization

• In Event: Open Refereed Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): Table 4: Marxist Sociology and Critical Political Economy

Abstract

Scholars have long debated “the agrarian question”: what happens to rural agricultural producing classes identified as the “peasantry” under conditions of capitalist development. In Colombia’s coffee regions, this question was historically resolved in favor of smallholding farmers – a “middle-class peasantry” – who formed the backbone of the country’s coffee industry in the 20th century. Yet, by the early 21st century processes of global restructuring had precaritized the coffee market, plunging Colombia’s cafeteros (along with many other coffee smallholders throughout the global coffee belt regions of the world) into a deep economic crisis that threatened their rural livelihoods. Over the past decade, however, a new class of coffee farmers has emerged: urban, middle-class entrepreneurs who leverage social, cultural and economic capital to produce high-value “specialty coffees” for luxury export markets. Drawing on fieldwork in Colombia’s coffee highlands - interviews, fieldnotes, and survey data - this presentation analyzes the divergent experiences of traditional farmers (campesinos) and specialty farmers (neo-campesinos). Our analysis highlights significant transformations and variability in the class composition of coffee producing farmers despite continuity in coffee production and yields. Our analysis raises critical questions about the continued viability of rural smallholding farmers and rural livelihoods into the 21st century.

Authors

• Phillip A. Hough, Florida Atlantic University

• Ash Hernandez, Florida Atlantic University

• Md Niamot Ali, Florida Atlantic University

• David Osorio Garcia