Via Organic

How Via Organica Is Helping Local Vendors and Farmers Thrive

Via Organica, a regenerative farm in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, is more than just a place that grows and sells fresh, organic produce to the local community. Rosana Álvarez, the farm's founder, also runs an educational center, restaurant, and store. By centralizing these operations, Álvarez is seeking to improve the livelihoods for local farmers and vendors.

January 30, 2019 | Source: Shareable | by Casey OBrien

Via Organica, a regenerative farm in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, is more than just a place that grows and sells fresh, organic produce to the local community. Rosana Álvarez, the farm’s founder, also runs an educational center, restaurant, and store. By centralizing these operations, Álvarez is seeking to improve the livelihoods for local farmers and vendors.

Álvarez points to the example of a vendor who used to wake up at 4:30 a.m. every morning, take a long bus ride into the city, and walk from house to house selling tortillas. She would often return home at 7-8 p.m. at night, having sold only a few hundred pesos’ worth of tortillas — making roughly $10-$20 for a full day’s work. But now, Álvarez says, the vendor needs to travel to San Miguel just once per week to deliver tortillas in bulk to Via Organica. And she receives payment up front, Álvarez says. For Álvarez, this model represents a push to better the lives of local food producers and incentivize sustainable agricultural practices.