 Everyone's different here at the Canopy Workspace, different organisations, projects and specialisms. But here inside the Entopia building there's also a common goal that brings us together. There's a collective desire to accelerate change and sustainability is at the heart of it. The Canopy is all about collaboration, a community sharing and learning from each other's experiences. And this is Canopy Connect, a podcast where you can get to know your fellow members at the Canopy. This time on the podcast. Hi, my name is Miguel Zamora. I'm the managing director of Rural Voices. So, let's connect. So Rural Voices is an organisation that focus on supporting rural communities, agricultural communities, so their voices can be amplified and we can try to include them in the sustainability conversations that civil society organisations, governments or companies implement all over the world. I have been working in sustainable agriculture for 25 years and the big scene that I keep on seeing again and again why some sustainability initiatives do not have the impact that are intended is because they tend to miss a key part, an obvious part, but a very important one, which is including the voices of those people who need to implement those initiatives. For example, we have been working with rural communities in Ecuador. That's where I am from. And Ecuador has one of the largest cocoa producers in Latin America. We're working some communities there. We're trying to understand potential labour issues, right? Child labour, risk of forced labour. And when we approach the different companies that might be working there, there was a big kind of wall. People were like, no, no, there's not a problem here. There's no child labour here. There's no forced labour and we were, okay, perfect. We believe you. What we're trying to do here is to understand if there is a risk that something might happen later. So with that, we went to different communities. We reached out to farmers and to workers and we learnt a lot of things that we didn't know before. That those companies didn't know and didn't quite understand because they have not been able to ask the questions. We learned that a lot of farmers are also farm workers. They work in other farms when they're not working in their farms. That when they hire other people, they usually hire people from their communities or the higher relatives. So there is a very informal arrangement, which is great, but it creates some risk, right? If you don't have a contract, a verbal contract, how much you're going to get paid, how many hours you're going to work, there is a risk that potentially those workers may be taking advantage of. We also saw that there is a very common practice for children under 17, 16 to work on the fields, many times helping their parents, but other times just working for other people that they may know in the community, but still there is a child labour. Not so much for them missing education, missing going to school, but the type of practices that they can use. Using machetes, using different fertilizers, pesticides. That's like a major risk that could happen. So when we went to these communities, it wasn't to tell the companies, look, you have a major problem of child labour or forced labour or of other labour abuses, but there is a risk. So by identifying the risk, now you can focus on preventing that that risk becomes an actual negative impact on the rights of people. We're still in the process working with these companies to try to implement some of the recommendations that we have included. But for us, the big thing is that we have been able to amplify the voices of those communities to tell their story about what are the risks that might exist there. Risks that may be the companies that were purchasing that cacao have not been able to identify before. People say we are what we eat. They usually mean we are nutritious food, healthy food for our bodies. But there's also something about who we are as people, our values, our values as a society. So we know that agriculture, mainstream agriculture, there's a lot of problems around child labour, forced labour, working conditions. Mainstream agriculture is a big contributor to greenhouse emissions to climate change. Part of what we as a people can do and should do is make sure that the food that we eat is being produced in a way that, you know, is treating people properly with respect in a dignified way. So by working on this and making sure that the workers, the farm workers who work in the different fields, that the small farmers can tell us, in the conversation around what we need to do and what we need to do around sustainability, can say this type of initiative has worked well in the past. These others do not work that well because we have different incentives, we have different capabilities. It's just not the right fit. So by having that first-hand perspective on what should sustainability look like on the field, we feel that we can have better initiatives that are not only smarter because, you know, they have like the right perspective included but also the right scene to do by including everybody who is affected in that conversation. So that's what I think we do, the problem that we're trying to solve. I joined the canopy because I see there's a good opportunity to meet people who are working on sustainability. Hopefully other people who might be working on agriculture who might be working with rural communities or that might be working more socially. Usually people think about sustainability tend to focus a lot on the environmental part which is super important. But, you know, my organization working more on social issues when I contacted the canopy and I learned more about them noticed that that was an important part for them. So being able to meet more people and organizations that are working on that area that might either be here directly or may refer me to, that's my main goal. As having moved here a year ago, there is a lot for me to learn about the UK, about Europe, about the agricultural sector, the food sector here. So that is my main goal and to be able to share, to be able to learn about what others are doing, to be able to provide my perspective if anybody is interested to. One of the most rewarding things about working on sustainability is the human connection with other people who are also interested in the same goals. So that's another reason why I joined the canopy. For people who may want to learn a little bit more about what we do, there is a website, ruralvoices.farm. I'm also available over email, Miguel at coffeehente.com. That's coffee is the drink. Hente is people in Spanish and that's from previous work that I was doing in coffee. I usually come to the canopy Wednesdays and Fridays. That's related to picking up my kid after school. Those are the days that work better for me and my partner. And yeah, I'm always available to chat. I love talking about sustainability. I love talking about rural communities. And yeah, I look forward to catching up over coffee, which is, you know, a product that I love. So yeah, let's chat next time that you see me. Thanks for checking out this episode of Canopy Connect. Log in to your office R&D profile to connect with your canopy neighbors. Just head to the members page and find them. This is a canopy podcast made by New Allotment. The canopy is part of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, supported by the European Regional Development Fund. Thank you for listening.