A step towards sustainability: Life cycle assessment of coffee produced in the indigenous community of Ocotepec, Chiapas, Mexico

Abstract

Coffee is one of the tropical crops of great relevance. Mexico occupies one of the first places to produce it. Chiapas is the state that contributes the most significant amount of grain to the national and international market, harvested by organized groups such as cooperatives of origin indigenous. In these regions, cultivation is divided into five stages: cultivation, harvest, wet processing, dry processing and roasting. Thus, the agroecological approach based on the agroforestry system of coffee in the community of Ocotepec allowed generating an intercultural dialogue with a Zoque indigenous cooperative, where its members expressed the need to develop information regarding their production process and thus take the relevant decisions. Concerning environmental impacts. The life cycle analysis was applied as a methodological tool to evaluate the process of producing a kilogram of ground coffee in its honey and speciality varieties offered to the national market, showing the most significant impacts for both types of coffee. Cultivation level (water consumption around 80% and land use with effects close to 98%), wet processing (impacting the ecotoxicity of water sources close to 99% followed by marine ecotoxicity with 73%) and in its distribution stage affecting at least 15 environmental categories, likewise, comparative tests were carried out to calculate the carbon footprint and the water footprint, with shade-grown honey coffee being the type of coffee that has the most negligible environmental impact and contributes the most profits to the cooperative.