What is the Mesoamerican Development Institute?
Mesoamerican Development Institute (MDI) is a nongovernmental organization with offices in Honduras and Lowell. MDI specializes in technology transfer and market development; we introduce renewable energy innovations for agro-productive industry to reduce costs and restore environments in rural Mesoamerica.
Increase Sustainability in the Coffee Industry
Increase Support for Honduras Coffee Farmers
Increase Development in Forest-Friendly Farming Systems
“Our results suggest that widespread adoption of IOC coffee could have a transformative effect in tropical agricultural landscapes by increasing forest cover while allowing for high agricultural yields.”
– Chandler et al. 2013. Conservation Biology Volume 27, pages 785-795
SOLAR-DRIED COFFEE WILL CHANGE THE WORLD.
Through research and development the Mesoamerican Development Institute (MDI) is on the path to make some big changes in the coffee industry. The team has introduced solar/biofuel industrial scale drying technology. The renewable energy technology gets red of the need to burn wood during the drying process. MDI is also preparing to scale up our model of coffee cultivation that restores and conserves forest habitat on private lands (coffee farms). The method called Integrated Open Canopy™ (IOC) is coupled with carbon-neutral processing to provide carbon offsets as incentive for adoption. Forest-friendly coffee production and processing in harmony with threatened national parks in Honduras is foundation of our Café Solar® coffee program.
Learn More About Our Solar Processed Coffee!
We’re Thankful For Our Partners!
Mesoamerican Development Institute Projects
Recent News & Articles
According to coffee industry projections, in order to keep up with consumer demand, an area nearly the size of Honduras and Nicaragua combined will need to be converted to coffee…
As coffee demand for coffee increases, forests in Central America are cleared to make way for coffee farms. As a region, Central America is the second largest coffee producer after…
David King, USFS Northern Research Station (dking@fs.fed.us) Reporte de gira de campo donde comunico las actividades realizadas durante mi viaje más reciente a Honduras. Los objetivos del viaje fueron: 1)…
David King, USFS Northern Research Station (dking@fs.fed.us) Here I describe the activities during my recent trip to Honduras. The objectives of the trip were to 1) foster further cooperation between…