Activism Through Cacao
More than ever, activism has become a necessity. The world craves people who care enough to write their own words and stand up for what they believe in (yes, a blog post without AI). We need to rethink our models in the environmental, social, cultural, and economic fields. With Cacao Source, the project was our way to rebel against society. It was our way to take action against everything we wanted to fight against, and we created it out of love.
Environmental Activism - From Monoculture to Regeneration
Have you seen the beauty of our nature? A healthy ecosystem uplifted by the songs of the birds, the roars of its guardians, the colors of its diversity, and the aromas of abundance? We stand up and say no more to monoculture, let's find an alternative. Let's support cacao in a biodiverse system. Let's not just buy cacao, let's participate in its place for a regenerative future. Let's sit with farmers and listen to their struggles and daily wins. Let's study ecology, learn how to care for the cacao trees, and learn to be in service from the seed to the cup. Let's gather expertise so when cacao or its guardians face a challenge, we can be on their side and help them to overcome it. Let's get our hands dirty, learn to handle a machete, walk for hours to the farthest lands of cacao, communicate in different languages, and whisper to the trees,
Our environmental activism is promoting regenerative agriculture approaches in small and large-scale farms by creating a strong bond with our farmers, sharing tools and knowledge, helping plant more trees, investigating pest and climate change solutions, monitoring our soils, and bringing awareness to the international world the current challenges the cacao trees are currently facing.
Social Activism - Equity and Transparency in the Value Chain
Have you seen the beauty in people? We mean all people—the ones who think like us and the ones who think differently. The ones who share our way of life and the ones who teach us a new way. The ones living in the day-to-day and the ones planning 10 futures ahead. We stand up and say no more to exclusion, let's find an alternative. Let's support cacao in an inclusive system. Let's not just buy cacao, but let's sit down and listen to the stories of everyone involved in getting the cacao seed into a cup. Let's find a way to create a transparent value chain where everyone can be seen and valued for the work they do. Let's know the names of those involved in nourishing our bodies. Let the farmers know the names of those enjoying their fruits. Let's keep the abundance in the hands of the many people working hard rather than the few people behind large corporations.
Our social activism is promoting an equitable world, working towards the needs of everyone within the value chain of cacao being met. Creating radical transparency for consumers to regain their power of the decision of making ethical choices. We aim to unearth the broken system of the cacao market based on mass exploitation. We aim to promote collaboration over competition. The well-being of all over the well-being of a few. We track payments, salaries, basic needs, family situations, and constantly work towards improving the conditions of everyone involved in our work. Believing that with compassion and patience, change comes in its own time, as long as we keep improving a bit more every day. We aim to raise global awareness on local realities in producing countries, and the impact and influence a consumer has. To complete our activism, we created the not-for-profit ‘Give Back to the Source’, where we can work one step further with local communities and promote women's inclusion in sustainable development in farming communities with the first eco-artisan women’s center in Suchitepequez.
Cultural Activism - Honoring and Protecting Sacred Wisdom
Have you seen the beauty in cultures? A multicultural world that is abundant in traditions, wisdom, and authentic identities. The cultures we identify with and the ones that we appreciate and enrich our perceptual life. We stand up to say no more to cultural dissolvement, appropriation, and prostitution. Let’s appreciate the richness of cultures, learn from each other, and safeguard the endangered cultures so they can regenerate themselves back to an abundant culture that overflows to a point where its sacredness can once again be shared with the world. For these cultures now need some time to reweave their wisdom, which has been diluted and spread, and they require space from foreign influence before the weaving is completed.
Our cultural activism stands strong with local and international cultures to create a bridge that promotes appreciation. We work with cacao as an ingredient in sacred spaces for all cultures. Respecting and honoring the Mayan Cosmovision as a spiritual path much larger than the cacao movement itself. A Mayan fire ceremony is not a cacao ceremony or cacao circle. The Mayan Cosmovision is reemerging, and we are standing aside as allies and listeners. Cacao has been a global ingredient for centuries now, we aim to work towards acknowledgment of its sacredness back into where cacao is currently residing: worldwide. Wherever cacao is at, we want to meet it there. It has already made its way to a variety of new cultures across the seas. Cacao is being consumed, what about consuming it more mindfully, honoring its origin, valuing the people from the producing countries, with the sacred space setting in authenticity to our walk of life? We promote ongoing open conversations with all actors and voices with no box to be ticked that gives foreigners rights to the use of cacao, but rather a life path of receptivity, self and group accountability, and constant reevaluation of the integrity of our service to cacao.
A Ceremony Called Life
Our system has endangered the core of life: our planet, our people, and our cultures. Cacao is a bridge between all those worlds. It can reflect society's largest darkness from mass exploitation of land, people, and cultural disolvement to the brightest alternative with the participation of soil health, alleviation of farmers' poverty, preventative medicine, and community building.
We are aware our model isn’t perfect, and we still have a lot of work to do towards our vision. For this reason, we believe in regeneration through cacao. We aim to meet the world where it is and improve it however we can. What we can commit to is that the intention of every decision made at Cacao Source is always to have the planet, people, and culture at heart. The magic of the reflection of the mistakes we have made throughout the years is the reflection that our project is still human and humans make mistakes, and we love it this way. We are very grateful for all of our supporters who have appreciated our human approach, our thousands of relationships created through cacao sourcing, and all of the people who have joined us in our activism.
Another commitment to close the cycle of our activism is our circular economy model. With none of our team members having access to profitable gains, profit is out the window. There is no possible economic agenda in the work we do from the leadership team, and therefore, we can keep the highest ethics at heart in our decision-making. We are in a constant dance between creating a sustainable, impactful, and heart-led project, with cacao as the main ingredient to what we love to call a ceremony: life.
Cacao Letter, From a human to a human, An activist to an activist