Christina’s musings on the lessons of today:
In our lecture on the history of coffee production, Dr. Muschler discussed the role of military research in the creation of many agricultural chemicals (herbicides, pesticides, fertilizers etc.) Chemical agents like nitrogen fertilizer, DDT, 24D and 245T that were widely adopted in agriculture were actually directly or indirectly children of military technological development (the last two chemicals were major components of agent orange). These chemicals were used to wage a whole new war, but this time against insects and weeds. When did bugs become the enemies anyway? And when did it become acceptable to indiscriminately kill all life except the one species we deem “good”? Ring any bells? To me, it is a sickening reminder of all that went wrong in our own human wars, but industrial agriculture has decided to use them against nature. Thankfully, with new research and the diligent work by people like Dr. Muschler, Edger (the owner of the small organic farm) and many others we are beginning to realize the incredibly harmful effects of these chemicals on both humans and the environment.
Sorry to be depressing… Aly will now save the mood:
Hope. Beauty. So much admiration. We visited the farm of Edgar and Florybel, learning about how his family had been modeling their farming practices after those of Edgar’s grandparents. After a delicious, home-grown lunch of yucca pie, aguachate (a traditional root vegetable), seasoned rice, and homemade salsa made with green bananas, we toured the farm, from the mountainsides where coffee bushes and banana plants grew in symbiosis to the compost shed, where rich, organic fertilizer is made, to the vegetable gardens, where most of our lunch came from. Edgar’s care and concern for the health of the land was evident in his story and holistic farming practices, and as a person who is passionate about sustainable agriculture, it was life-changing to actually meet a man who worked toward making his farm the sort of vibrant, self-sufficient polyculture that his grandparents once had. He said that his family would love to have student researchers conduct further study on the farm, and I’m seriously considering taking him up on that. Seriously, today was so good I got chills.
And in the evening it got even better after a run through CATIE’s trails with a pack of my classmates. On the way back, I was walking along the road when I saw a three-toed sloth eating in a tree! Whoa. Nature.
And finally…on a post-dinner quest to the pond, several of us found a caiman lurking in the shallow water. They’re pretty cute.
Good night—my soft bed is calling.
Aly and Christina
(pictures provided by Aly and Dr. Shea)
