Organic coffee is said to overcome the ostensible tension between environmental and economic sustainability. While creating employment and income by tapping into the growing specialty coffee markets in Europe, United States, Japan and other countries, the production of organic coffee also helps to rebuild and conserve soil, watersheds, and biodiversity. However, critics argue that the process and requirements of certification, coupled with the power of large-scale buyers, the lack of financing, and competition between producers, result in pressures for producers to embrace commercial values, at the expense of civic values. This paper explores the tension between civic (environmental, communitarian) and commercial (efficiency-based) values in organic coffee production in Costa Rica. It argues that whereas business practices based on commercial values are taking hold in many organic coffee-producing communities, civic values of trust, cooperation, stewardship of the land, and others have also been strengthened. More specifically, communities that have pursued the development of their social capital, in the form of intra and inter-community networks where knowledge and connections are shared, exhibit strong civic values. The development of social capital has also facilitated and complemented the development of human and natural capital. In turn, communities that do not actively pursue the development of social capital, by engaging in "bonding," i.e. activities that bring communities together, and "bridging," i.e. activities that connect different communities (as well as NGOs and for-profit organizations with those communities), exhibit stronger commercial values, and weak civic values. This research reports on findings in eight communities in Costa Rica.

A professor of economics, Héctor Sáez has spent years researching social justice issues and the impact our current economic system has had on Central American and Caribbean countries. He has conducted research on several agricultural topics, including the use of agrochemicals in coffee production; the production of organic coffee and the commodity links in fair trade and conventional coffee. He ha also studied the agriculture of Cuba under socialism. Héctor is currently a professor of Applied Economics, Community Development and Environmental Studies at the University of Vermont in Burlington and at the Bainbridge Graduate Institute in Seattle. He is also a staff economist for the Center for Popular Economics in Amherst, MA. A native of Puerto Rico, Hector has taught at the Center for Sustainable Development Studies in Costa Rica, Wagner College in New York City, the University of Puerto Rico, and the Social Thought and Political Economy program at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.