That's because Ellis hopes to join a small band of Mexican and Central American farmers who sell coffee at premium prices under the Rainforest Alliance label - a certification that guarantees better social conditions for coffee workers.

The Alliance, a New York-based, not-for-profit conservation group that was set up in 1987 and began its coffee program in 1998, has so far certified some 23 farms throughout El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama.

Coffee sold under the label fetches 20 cents a pound more than regular coffee.

"Consumers in Europe and the United States are increasingly willing to pay more for humanely produced, specialty coffee," said Sabrina Vigilante of the Alliance. "And it's good coffee too."

To qualify for the certification, farmers must ensure they protect the environment when farming, and provide worker welfare that includes quality housing, medical care and education.

Ellis, who is 47 and runs the plantation on behalf of a U.S. owner who declined to be named, said upgrading the living conditions of the farm's 300 temporary workers is costing hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The effort, he said, will make the operation more profitable.

"Some local people think we're crazy. But this isn't about saving the peasant population. It makes good business sense," said Ellis, a native of Lake Jackson in the Houston area.

A recent day for Ellis, a former U.S. Peace Corps volunteer in Bolivia, began well before dawn at the local hospital, where he rushed a coffee picker moments before she gave birth.

"By the time I got to her she was having contractions. I think I was screaming louder than she was on the way to the hospital," said Ellis as he threaded his jeep along a road he helped build on his Palma Real Estate plantation.

A few years ago Ellis' female coffee employees would have been left to give birth in their squalid quarters in the mountains.

But since June 2001, when Ellis took over the farm after answering an advertisement for the job in the United States, growing coffee has been about a lot more than attending to the needs of trees.

Ellis, a former farmer in Texas and who has also worked on reforestation projects in the Amazon basin, aims to produce 30,000 132-lb bags on his 363-acre plantations next season.

If he is certified by the Rainforest Alliance, the group will put him in touch with mid-sized U.S coffee importers such as the Balzac Brothers of South Carolina. Their coffee sells in U.S retail chains such as Safeway and Albertson's.

The Alliance now aims to help members sell their product to importers in Italy and Britain.

EVERY DOLLAR COUNTS

A price premium is considered crucial for the livelihood of Central America's coffee growers because oversupply has hurt prices. A pound of coffee now sells for around 57 cents in New York trade, not far above its 30-year-low of 42 cents reached last October.

The price decline is forcing growers to harvest only part of their crop, as profits do not cover production costs.

The Alliance is one of four worldwide certifications guaranteeing that coffee is grown within environmental norms, but it claims to be the only seal that requires high standards of coffee worker welfare.

Among the improvements Ellis is making are upgrades to the housing of his workers, who, like many of the 5,000 who labor on Panama's coffee plantations, lived in dank wooden huts with earth floors and were susceptible to disease.

A housing unit with 16 rooms costs around $25,000 to build and holds up to six workers in each room, Ellis said. Each unit must have cement floors to qualify under the certification system.

"POOR BUT HEALTHY"

Ellis has also provided many workers with new teeth, while others have been cured of tuberculosis and dysentery. All now have medical records for the first time, according to Ellis, who is divorced and lives alone at the farm.

"They're poor as hell but they're healthy," he said.

Under the certification program, coffee workers' children must receive free schooling, and Ellis has gradually restocked impoverished village schools with teaching materials such as pencils and paper.

"They treat us better here," said 27-year-old coffee worker Apolonio Rodriguez. "Where we worked before our roof leaked and we had no access to education."

Some Panamanian coffee farmers are critical of the program, saying the price crisis makes it impossible to spend money on improving social conditions.