During a family trip to Colombia, we spent a few weeks in the Cauca Valley near Cali. One morning, our neighbor invited me to visit his fields after hearing about my interest in crops.

At dawn we walked together through his plantation – rows of avocados, banana trees, cornfields, and, of course, coffee bushes. I was deeply impressed, not only by the size of his land, but by the fact that at 76 years old he still works it all by himself.

Yet he told me he doesn’t want to rely solely on coffee. The plant is sensitive, and last year he lost half of his harvest to insects – a loss he only discovered after washing the cherries and peeling off their skins.

It was a reminder of how fragile agricultural livelihoods can be, even in a valley so rich and green.