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Café Solar® Coffee Is Processed Using Clean Technology and Forest-Friendly Farming Systems Researched by UMass Lowell Students & Faculty

Conventional coffee-drying methods mean that every time you drink a cup of coffee— unless you are drinking Café Solar® — roughly 3 sq. cm of rainforest is destroyed. Not only does drinking Café Solar help sustain the rainforest, drinking Café Solar coffee helps fund UML research into sustainable development, including women-managed cooperatives.

Café Solar® is the first coffee to be processed using 100% clean, renewable energy, solar and biomass. The completely off-grid technology was designed and engineered by the non-profit Mesoamerican Development Institute (MDI). MDI is collaborating with UMass Lowell, UMass Amherst, and Central American Universities to create a multi-disciplinary program supporting forest-friendly farming.

The multidisciplinary program is known as the Networked Entrepreneurial Research Center (NERC) and is focused on a women-run farmer organization, Co-operativa COMISUYL, in Honduras.  COMISUYL supplies the coffee used to make Café Solar®.

The program allows student and faculty researchers to participate in cutting-edge international research, education and marketing programs supporting the introduction of clean technology for rural communities, women’s empowerment and training, and new high-biodiversity agroforesty systems endorsed by the US Forest Services for coffee, essential oil, and biofuel production.

As the sustainable coffee choice at UMass Lowell, Café Solar® is available through University Dining, is certified Fair Trade and organic, and is smooth and delicious. Café Solar® is also now available online through www.cafesolar.com/welcomeuml where customers can identify as UML friends and support this research.  $1 from every 1 lb. package and $2 from each 5 lb. package of Café Solar® will be donated to a research and scholarship fund.

The funds raised will be awarded to student participants in the NERC program and used to support relevant faculty research through the Center for Women & Work (CWW) at UMass Lowell. CWW and its associates are researching the impact of the Café Solargroup shot® program on the women, families, and communities of COMISUYL.

For more information, contact info@cafesolar.com, or the Mesoamerican Development Institute at (978) 934-2296.

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