Colombia produces some of the world’s best coffee, primarily on small farms. However, much of the coffee cherry is not used, leading to more than 11 billion kilograms of waste per year! Universidad de Manizales and UW-Madison have partnered on a project to tackle the challenge of finding innovative solutions to reduce waste during coffee production in Colombia. This bilateral exchange program is bringing together students from both institutions working on projects to build a deeper understanding of culture, science/technology, and commercialization necessary to develop innovative products that can work for small farmers in Colombia. Teams are working together before traveling to both institutions.
This project is funded by a 100,000 Strong in the Americas Grant and builds upon a 2022 Krishna Ellen GARDEN award to advance collaborative projects on food and health between institutions.
UW students are from Biological Systems Engineering, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Food Science, and Plant and Agroecosystem Sciences. The UW-Madison group is led by Andrea Noll, MS, MPH and Dr. Brad Bolling in the Department of Food Science; the U. Manizales team is led by Valeria Duque and Dr. Juan Carlos Carmona-Hernández, who recently visited UW-Madison to start the program. Travel is planned for January 2025 to Manizales and June 2025 to Madison.