Marisol Lima-Solano

Una parte relevante de los impactos asociados a la producción de café, se origina cuando el producto no cumple con los estándares de calidad exigidos por los mercados nacional e internacional.

En diversas regiones de México, existe una amplia diversidad de productos agroalimentarios con potencial para transformarse en bebidas artesanales. No obstante, gran parte de estos recursos se comercializa sin procesos de conservación o transformación que permitan ampliar su vida útil y su alcance comercial

La pérdida de frutas y hortalizas en México representa una grave problemática social, económica y ambiental, con cifras que superan las 18 mil toneladas diarias de desperdicio. Frutas altamente perecederas como la guayaba, el mango y la fresa son especialmente susceptibles a perderse antes de llegar al consumidor final, debido a factores como la recolección prematura, condiciones climáticas adversas y la falta de conocimiento sobre alternativas de aprovechamiento. Ante esta situación, la producción de mermelada artesanal surge como una estrategia accesible y viable para reducir el desperdicio, generar ingresos económicos y fomentar la seguridad alimentaria. En este artículo, se presenta una guía paso a paso para transformar frutas en mermeladas artesanales, resaltando su valor como opción de negocio sustentable para productores, emprendedores y comunidades rurales.

Problema El proceso de tostado de café, esencial para desarrollar su sabor característico, es también una fuente significativa de emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero (GEI) debido al consumo de combustibles fósiles. Estas emisiones contribuyen al cambio climático, que afecta a los ecosistemas globales y a las comunidades cafetaleras en regiones productoras, donde el café representa una fuente clave de ingresos para miles de familias que venden café cereza. Sin embargo, el cambio climático altera los patrones de temperatura y precipitación, impactando en la floración y maduración de los granos, además de favorecer la propagación de plagas y enfermedades, lo que reduce la calidad y la cantidad de las cosechas, afectando tanto a los agricultores como al mercado global de café. En un contexto de creciente demanda por productos sostenibles, es crucial que la industria cafetalera asuma el reto de adaptarse y reducir las emisiones generadas durante el proceso de tostado y busque reducir su huella de carbono mediante indicadores ambientales que midan y cuantifiquen estas emisiones. Solución Para enfrentar este reto, nuestro proyecto ha buscado alternativas sostenibles que contribuyan a la disminución de las emisiones de GEI y por ende el impacto ambiental asociado al proceso de tostado de café. Además, ofrecer una alternativa de generación de ingresos al capacitarse en la valorización del café verde, transformándolo en café tostado con bajas emisiones de GEI.

En México, el chile es más que un alimento; es un pilar de la cultura y la gastronomía, destacándose en la dieta mexicana por su valor nutritivo, alto en vitaminas A y C, fibras, carotenoides y minerales. A pesar de la diversidad de 64 tipos de chiles, incluyendo el chile habanero y el chile Yahualica con denominaciones de origen, enfrentamos un grave problema: el desperdicio alimentario. Hasta el 45% de las verduras se pierden en diferentes etapas de la cadena de suministro y aproximadamente el 30% de las verduras compradas por consumidores terminan desechadas, representando una pérdida de recursos y un desperdicio nutricional significativo. Este problema no solo afecta la sostenibilidad alimentaria, sino también implica perder la oportunidad de aprovechar completamente estos alimentos ricos en nutrientes.

Coffee is the second most consumed beverage in the world, as well as one of the most valuable commodities, providing a livelihood for 25 million farmers in the tropics. The aim of this research was to analyze recent trends in coffee innovation. The documents for this review were extracted from the Scopus database in two separate searches. The first search registered 365 documents on coffee innovations between 1977 and April 2022, and the second flagged 138 documents on the life cycle analysis (LCA) of coffee, which was the primary innovation identified. Bibliometric methodologies in VOSviewer and the RStudio bibliometrix package were used for data processing. The results showed a growing number of articles on coffee innovations since 2010, with research focused on the areas of business, management, and accounting (14.1 %); environmental sciences (11.9 %); and agricultural and biological sciences (11.8 %). In terms of document production by country, the most prominent were the United States, Brazil, and the United Kingdom. The findings also revealed that the initial focus of coffee innovations was on issues related to dissemination, the human factor, and marketing. Since 2016, innovation trends have focused on sustainability evaluated through life cycle analysis originating mainly in producing countries as a response to climate change to ensure food security under a sustainable development approach.

Key concepts such as “carbon footprint”, “carbon neutral”, “carbon neutrality”, “low carbon”, and “net-zero emissions” have gained prominence in the context of climate change, a current issue that has become an urgent global challenge caused by anthropogenic activities, including agriculture. This bibliometric review analyzed the use of these concepts in mitigation strategies for the coffee sector, since coffee production significantly contributes to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, primarily due to land use change, fertilizer use, and processing methods, and therefore, sustainable approaches within the whole coffee value chain need to be implemented. A total of 105 documents from the Scopus database, covering publications from January 1988 to June 2023, were analyzed. Co-word analysis and co-occurrence mapping techniques, together with traditional bibliometric laws and historical evolution analysis using VOSviewer and Bibliometrix, were applied. The evolution of research over time revealed that the first concept introduced for documenting the reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions was “low carbon emissions” in 1909, but it was not until 2008 that the first document was published establishing a link between “low carbon emissions” and “coffee”. In 2015, two more concepts, “carbon neutral” and “carbon neutrality”, documented since 1968 and 1995, respectively, were used in articles related to coffee. So far, the most relevant concept in quantifying GHG emissions in the context of coffee production activities has been “carbon footprint”. When it comes to new documents linking key concepts to coffee, between 2015 and 2018, there was an average of six documents per year. Since 2019, the average has remained at 15, highlighting the need to continue documenting climate change mitigation strategies in the coffee sector. Practical application of our findings for coffee sustainability programs must include the adoption of on-farm sustainable agricultural practices that span the entire value chain. In conclusion, this study underscores the importance of concepts such as “carbon footprint” and “carbon neutrality” as key pillars in the development of effective climate change mitigation strategies in the coffee sector and the significance of their integration into future research and global policies with practical applications, with far-reaching implications for sustainable agriculture in the near future.

Objective: To investigate differences amongst the LTO (Long Term Orientation) profile of graduate students of two academic programs: tourism and engineer. Design/methodology/approach: A total of 66 students participated in the study. The items of each construct corresponded to the two dimensions established by the original LTO scale. The validity test for the measurement scale was based first on exploratory and then on confirmatory factor analysis. The internal reliability consistency of the multi-item scales was assessed with Cronbach’s alpha. Independent sample t-tests were applied to verify the hypothesis. Results: The eight-item LTO scale performed reasonably well, lending support for its internal validity for the sample. The engineering students (6.16±0.65) had higher levels for the planning dimension compared with the tourism students (6.10±0.56), still there were no significant differences in the estimates (t=-0.391, p=0.697), and students of the tourism program rated significantly higher (t=3.557, p=0.001) for the tradition dimension (6.12±0.59) compared to the engineering students (5.42±0.90). Limitations/implications: The study focus only in one personality trait. Education providers can draw upon these findings a better understanding of their students, becoming relevant for the curriculum. Findings/Conclusions: Students of the tourism academic program score higher in the tradition dimension of the LTO profile. On the contrary, there was no difference regarding the planning factor of the LTO profile. Therefore, LTO scale might be useful for understanding students’ decisions and personal orientations, allowing for academic programs to better focus their curriculum.