Another week in Costa Rica…this place still seems so unreal. Costa Rica has introduced me to very difficult and unique challenges while also rewarding me with the most invaluable experiences. This week we dove into new topics and Professor Libby’s presentation deeply resonated with me. He talked about the history behind how globalization developed policy and affected the global south. My main takeaway from Dr. Libby’s talk that I believe every student studying policy should hear, is that during the industrialization period, many countries of the global south took out loans from more developed countries which also happened to be the colonizer countries. Due to a recession, inflation rose globally causing interest rates to spike and made it impossible for many countries in the global south to pay back their loans at the new interest rate. This led to the involvement of the UN, more specifically the World Trade Organization and the World Bank. These two organizations created restrictive agreements with global south countries that limited their nation’s government and opened the door for multinational corporations to create a presence in these countries. In turn this ongoing debt and extremely restrictive policies act as a modern way for colonizer nations to maintain power over colonized countries. You may be wondering why I took the time to reiterate Professor Libby’s talk into my own words and I did this for two reasons: 1) I believe that you don’t truly understand a topic until you’re able to teach it to others 2) This is the context and the lens I used during my experiences at the different farms and locations within Costa Rica.
Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of this week we visited different farms/food tours to get a glimpse into the main source of revenue for Costa Rica’s economy; agriculture production. Monday we visited a pineapple farm; we were taken out to the fields in a tractor and then I had the most delicious pineapple I have ever tasted. Then we had pina coladas in the rain:). Tuesday, we visited a banana farm. I was surprised to hear from our speaker about how some staples of Costa Rican cuisine, are not from Costa Rica. Rice is from China and the beans are from Jamaica (globalization and industrialization does wonders). On Wednesday we went to a chocolate tour which was more on the professional ecotourism side of things and oh my that chocolate was delicious!
At the farms, it was wonderful to see the guides have such love, excitement, and dedication to sustainable farming and organic crops. It’s inspiring to see them remain steadfast despite the competition being multinational corporations that will do any means to produce more faster including using harmful pesticides that damage every living creature in the vicinity. Although these farms are too small to disrupt corporations export success, they serve as a staple in the community providing employment and food locally.
Thursday, I got the chance to go into the town of Sarapiqui. This town is centralized on a single main street with open air shops and extreme variance in the age of the buildings. Many buildings had repurposed scrap metal and other items for building upkeep. Although it was a Thursday morning, the street was very lively with many people hanging out on street corners, shouting and laughing with each other, and just doing general day to day things. It immediately made me think of Mecca’s talk on the bus and how high the unemployment rate is in Sarapiqui; a symptom of the metaphorical sickness that is Costa Rica’s national debt. Which prevents the government from being able to invest in proper infrastructure to promote employment outside of agriculture in small rural communities.
However, even with these obstacles, the Costa Rican spirit is thriving and as rich as ever. Sarapiqui radiates warmth and a welcoming culture that I think Americans are especially appreciative of when, at least in my experience, during my interactions in an American city I feel far more suspicious and distrusting of people. It was also interesting being able to look into a grocery store and produce stands and compare the fruit that locals buy to the fruit that is exported to America. Let me tell you, the fruit was very different. It quite literally felt like all the fruit that did not pass quality or aesthetic inspections for exportation was then put in this town and I’m assuming towns similar to this as well. This is evidence of a concept that Dr. Libby introduced to us called commodity dumping. Seeing it in action within the town of Sarapiqui was equally mind blowing a-ha moment and also outrageous because after personally witnessing and tasting the quality fruit that these locals put their blood, sweat, and tears into it is very upsetting that they never get a chance to have any of it! To take this point even further, another interesting point in Mecca’s research in the town of Sarapiqui was the lack of food diversity in the majority of households and how that is effecting the health of these families. I believe she mentioned that these households lack vegetables the most in their diets. Their diet, consisting of rice, beans, eggs, and sometimes a meat for every meal compared to an average American’s access to food is mind blowing. Needless to say that this week has really got me thinking about agriculture and food production. It was honestly emotional and eye opening to see the trickle down effect of global and national policy affecting the livelihood of the citizens of Costa Rica. However, it stands as a testament of how valuable this study abroad experience is. Instead of going to another country for a comfortable and luxurious experience I instead get to see the real Costa Rica, with it’s rich history and hardworking citizens and beautiful wildlife. This trip inadvertently emphasizes authenticity because of the planned activities focusing on sustainability and research. It has also shown me the in real time the effects of policy (a field I want to go into) and strengthened my desire to be a public servant and fight for the people. It honestly has probably ruined normal vacations for me because I will always crave the authenticity I’ve found here.
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