Sustainable Development – La agricultura orgánica

Wow what a field trip!! For the LASP charla on Thursday, we traveled 45 to Heredia, another province of Costa Rica, to learn about sustainable development first hand…out of the classroom…the best way to learn! We visited a ‘coffee’ plantation owned and operated by Roderick. He, his wife, Évila, and his two children live off of their own land. 75% of the food they eat comes from their own labor on the farm! Roderick took us up the steep terrain among the coffee plants to share with us about his farm….really his life…because everything he shared came from his holistic approach to life.

THE OPPOSITE: Mono-agriculture…
In order to be profitable in Costa Rica, the majority of plantations of the main products, such as coffee, pineapple, and bananas are cultivated as mono-agriculture. This makes for a large quantity of product to export, yet it is not the best way to manage the diversity of the land. Large agriculture corporations use chemicals to protect the plants from disease and insects, which then run off into rivers and water systems because the land lacks deep roots to maintain the water from the rains. The chemicals can affect the people through the runoff into water systems (like the indigenous Bribri tribe that we visited in Limón) AND the chemicals affect the people through the air….

FOR EXAMPLE:
Many banana plantations offer housing for the workers on their property. However, when the fields of banana plants are sprayed with chemicals from above in an airplane, the houses end up getting sprayed as well. Unfortunately, the chemicals fall on workers and their children in the plantation community as if they were banana plants. Consequently, they can extract sicknesses or even cancer from the chemicals…which are being used to maintain that “perfect” appearance of a long, fat, flawless yellow banana that is exported to us Americans!

CONTRAST to mono-agriculture, Roderick’s one-man farm showed us the difference in preserving the diversity of the land and developing fruits and vegetables organically. He is an example of acting against the consequences of consumerism NOW…not in the future when it is worse! He works to maintain equilibrium of the soil…the good microbes and the bad microbes in the top layer of soil (15cm deep), the roots of fruit trees stabilizing the soil among the coffee plants, the influence of the planets/moon with a biodynamic calendar….etc. He also grows a variety of vegetables and herbs in his greenhouse which he sells in the organic market each month. Instead of using the chemicals to grow the perfect plants….he uses his mind! Roderick also has a little project with sheep. The sheep eat the grass…but not the coffee plants; he uses the manure for fertilization; and he can sell the meat.

I thoroughly enjoyed learning from his holistic perspective of life! He is another example of living out what is “enough.” He doesn’t need to produce masses of coffee to survive…his perspective of “enough” is to be able to live off of the land and enjoy life with his wife and children. He has a dream to teach people about agriculture so they can continue his legacy and fight against the loss of diversity. His wife studied medicine and she would like to teach people about natural medicines and health…she called it “agro-salud” (agri-health). They work hard…this is the life of a farmer (any of you Beun’s would know!!) but have such a peaceful life filled with opportunities to reflect/meditate among God’s creation while working the land.

And after trekking through the field and greenhouse, Évila served us “cafecito,” which consisted of a spread of organic coffee, fresco (strawberry juice) papaya, jacótes, pineapple, and banana cake….all natural and fresh!!! I savored it all…it was cleansing to me because my mother does not buy fruit for our familia.  I always get excited when I have the opportunity to eat fruit…kind of ironic that I am in the land of pineapple and banana and don’t eat much of it, eh?  We have the coffee part down (coffee for breakfast and supper)…but I choose to be content; it makes me more appreciative of the few times when I do get fruit. I just have to buy fruit for myself/familia if I want it to be part of my diet! Typically, the people here do not think or KNOW about health and nutrition. And what is cheaper? White bread!

En paz, Joanne