But Acevedo, a fourth-generation grower in the mountainous province of Santander, is among the few whose businesses have thrived by tapping into a new breed of sophisticated coffee drinkers in San Francisco, New York, Vancouver and London. "If you want to be in the coffee business today, you need to be creative and seize opportunities," said Acevedo, who farms high-quality specialty beans that are internationally certified as "organic" and "bird-friendly."

Such seals guarantee that his beans, sought out by trendy roasters, fetch prices well above those on global commodity markets, which are glutted by cheap coffee. Acevedo does not fit the image of the traditional Colombian coffee grower. Instead of hauling his produce to town cooperatives on the backs of mules like his grandfather did, Acevedo advertises on the Internet, travels to international coffee fairs and visits roasters abroad to make sure clients are satisfied.

He keeps up with the latest trends in coffee by reading English-language coffee journals. When not on the farm, he wears a business suit as manager of his own marketing and opinion firm in Bogota, the capital.

Juan Valdez, the poncho-wearing peasant who has been the advertising icon for Colombian coffee for decades, is no longer the realistic image of a successful coffee grower, experts say. Growers must learn to think more like market-savvy businessmen than bucolic campesinos to benefit from a "cappuccino revolution" in consumer nations. "For years, Colombian growers sold their beans without paying attention to customers' needs. Today you need to get out of the farm, listen to customers and seek strategic niches," Acevedo said.

"COFFEE CHATEAU"
Acevedo, who regards his coffee farm "as if it were a wine chateau" made the switch from regular coffee to shade-grown organic beans in 1995. An international agreement between producers and consumers had collapsed in 1989 and prices were on a slide, eating into the livelihood of thousands of growers.

The Hacienda El Roble had been run by Acevedo's uncle. But after he died, the other family members wanted to sell the lush property at the edge of the sweeping Chicamocha Canyon to golf course developers. None of them was interested in taking over the business --- at least not until Acevedo went to a specialty fair in New Orleans and learned about organic coffee.

Today El Roble produces organically grown coffee, free of harmful pesticides that could damage the plantation's ecosystem and the environment. The beans - hand-picked and washed with spring water -- are sold abroad to a small but growing number of consumers who are willing to pay more for environment-friendly coffee.

Acevedo fertilizes the land with chicken manure and coffee pulp and attacks diseases by using a fungus and culling bad beans. He says he sells all his "Mesa de los Santos" coffee to toasters in Europe and the United States -- 3,000 70-kg bags per year -- and is expanding to meet growing demand.

The coffee is named Mesa de los Santos, which means "table of the saints" in Spanish, because a 19th century priest, upon tasting the coffee in that area, proclaimed it worthy of being served to the blessed. The Web site is http://www.cafemesadelossantos.com.

"Consumers are becoming more concerned about the advantages of organic agriculture. Our customers look for a specialty coffee and care about the environment," said Robert Fulmer, president of Royal Coffee, a San Francisco area importer that buys Mesa de los Santos coffee.

While coffee prices on New York's Coffee Sugar and Cocoa Exchange are hovering around 50 cents a pound -- their lowest levels in more than a century in inflation-adjusted prices -- organic coffee can fetch up to $1.75 per pound, Fulmer said.

"BIRD-FRIENDLY"
Acevedo, who swaps his business suit for campesino clothes when he goes to the farm, has become a kind of bird patron. His turn-of-the-century coffee hacienda is home to many species of indigenous flora and fauna, which has also earned Mesa de Los Santos coffee a "bird-friendly" seal from the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center.

Acevedo has planted his farm with native trees and turned former cow pastures into lush forests, where birds nestle under a living canopy. Species on his farm include the steely-vented hummingbird, the black-throated mango, the green kingfisher, the dark-billed cuckoo and the red-headed woodpecker.

The bird-friendly seal was set up in 1998 by the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center to protect the diminishing habitat of birds migrating to the tropics, said Russ Greenberg, director of the center at the National Zoological Park.

Aggressive agriculture, including coffee plantations in Latin American countries, are contributing to the decline of North American birds, Greenberg said. Under the program, roasters who sell Smithsonian's "bird-friendly" coffee pay 25 cents per pound to the Migratory Bird Center for research and education programs.

"Shade-grown coffee is seen as a viable option that allows farmers to cultivate their land and make a livelihood and at the same time protect the biodiversity," Greenberg said.

DEEPENING CRISIS
With international prices hitting rock-bottom levels, most growers are losing money. And not everybody can sell to the small, premium-rich specialty market.

The United States, the world's largest consumer of coffee, bought 3.5 million 60-kg bags of specialty coffee in 2000 out of a total 18 million bags imported. Colombia ships between 650,000 and 700,000 bags of specialty beans every year.

The world's coffee producers received only $6 billion from a global coffee market worth $55 billion to $60 billion a year. Ten years ago, when they had the protection of a minimum price, farmers earned around $10 billion from a market then totaling $30 billion.

In Colombia, the world's third-largest producer after Brazil and Vietnam, the coffee crisis is pushing the Andean nation's 500,000 growers into bankruptcy. Marxist rebels and right-wing militias fighting in a 38-year-old war are muscling their way into coffee belts in the past immune from violence.

Some growers are turning to planting coca leaves -- the raw material for cocaine -- and poppies, from which heroin is derived. Back in his plant nursery, Acevedo kneels by a tiny coffee bush, his thoughts on faraway markets to be conquered.