Cooperativas Sin Fronteras Internacional (Cooperative Without
Borders) SC (CSF) is a private, non-profit organization that promotes
development, growth, and integration of agricultural enterprises which
are organized in a collective form - as association or cooperative -
and based on democratic participation, product quality, and organic
production following the guidelines laid down by FLO, Slow Food, Ifoam,
and the agroecology.
CSF’s intent is to develop strong
organizations of small and medium size growers capable of delivering
quality, offering sustainable development, protecting their territory
and integrating members under a democratic framework.
In
addition to the aforementioned social and environmental aspects, CSF is
governed by the principles of a new, truly participative, and
democratic cooperativism, developing an entrepreneurial framework at
the service of the growers, where members mutually share their
experience and knowledge with each other in solidarity.
World trade is getting more and more concentrated. There are
worldwide 8 to 10 food distributor’s chains that control the business
and dictate the norms on which this business is based. To lower costs,
they standardize production; biodiversity has been proclaimed the enemy
of profitability. With this urgency in mind, they transfer the food
business risk down along the food chain; the grower and the environment
are the ones suffering the most detriment and their existence is
threatened.
The growers and their organizations, particularly
those in the southern hemisphere, are not prepared to face this type of
destructive strategy: they are geographically and sectorially separate,
they have limited access to productive chains, their structures lack
the dynamism demanded by the market, their product and the service they
provide are not always up to what is required.
Paradoxically to
what the chains expected, consumers in developed countries have been
the first to react against this savage form of doing business and have
begun to use their power. They demand costs should be socially
distributed; the market must destroy neither the productive base nor
the culture that is associated with food production and consumption.
The products demanded by these consumers must protect the environment;
and growers must receive a fair payment. These ethical markets are
growing and offer tremendous options to small growers’ organizations.
Legal Form
Cooperativas Sin Fronteras Internacional has a legal structure
of a
non-profit civil corporation under Costa Rican Law, where it is
registered and has its headquarters.
The maximum authority is the General Assembly of Members.
There are
representations in each country where there are members. There is a
Board of Directors responsible for providing direction, and an
Executive Committee and the General Coordinator are in charge of
carrying out these directives and coordinating CSF’s activities.
President - Merling Preza, Nicaragua
Vice- president - Adriano Martins, Brasil
Treasurer - Manuel Amador, Costa Rica
Standing Members:
Lucio Cavazzoni, Italia;
Luis Herrera, Guatemala;
Walter Rodríguez y Hugo Valdés, Costa Rica
Merling Preza
Manuel Amador
Lucio Cavazzoni.
Hugo Valdés