Wow, what a week it’s been! It’s hard to believe we are already onto our second blog of just three for this class. This unit we are finishing, Social-Ecological Systems, has been eye opening to me in a multitude of ways, as I have seen the processes Costa Rica has utilized to bring together tourism, sustainable agriculture, and a desire to protect the environment up close. From tours of sustainable farms to hotels that blur the lines between nature and luxury, this week has taught me so much about the methods we can use to connect human infrastructure with nature in a way that allows for both the procurement of the resources our species needs, while protecting the biodiversity and beauty of the only habitable planet we have.
On the first day of this unit, our posse went about 30 minutes out of La Selva to an organic pineapple farm. This was my first time venturing out of La Selva since arriving on the 14th, and my first time driving through the town of Puerto Viejo de Sarapiqui. Seeing the town I was immediately taken back to the beautiful fall days my family and I would spend in Nashville, Indiana. Seeing the leaves of Indiana’s deciduous forests in vibrant hues of yellow, orange, and red, Nashville was a family favorite as their shops bustled with activity, yet an inexplicable sense of tranquility. Sarapiqui, while fully immersed in the green tropical rainforest landscape, had streets lined with shops with anything you could hope for. A butcher on one street corner, a bakery on the other, and in between, supermarkets, tourist shops, and an assortment of restaurants for hungry shoppers. The shops were not very large, and seemed almost exclusively family owned, giving me that sense of peace, despite the bustle of the early morning crowd. It seemed as if each resident of Sarapiqui had their place, providing their services to their community, and the tourists who were lucky enough to pass through.
The pineapple farm itself was tucked away behind a maze of side roads. Passing house after house I noticed two things: first, my initial observations of infrastructure being built with the forest in mind for the most part rang true, although some houses and tourist areas had well kept lawns, and second, houses in the small town of Sarapiqui seemed to be built with an indoor-outdoor flow, which I suspect is a result of the climate, as houses with windows or doors that open wide allow for a much needed breeze to break the everpresent heat and thick humidity of the lowland tropical rainforest.
During the tour of the pineapple farm I was very interested in how they managed pests without the use of harmful chemical pesticides. I was surprised to learn that they rely on a wall of forest surrounding their farm, which fosters a home for birds, reptiles, and spiders to eat the insects before they have a chance to get to the sprawling rows of pineapples. What I found most interesting about this approach is that by implementing it in the United States, we could restore forest cover around farms, replenishing habitats for species found all across the country, while also minimizing the need to use pesticides, as the forest barrier would help control insect populations. On my flight to Costa Rica, I distinctly remember the vast landscape thousands of feet below me of square plots of land, unbroken apart from a
small town every 50-100 miles. These fields are defining features of the United States, with blank expanses of crops spreading as far as the eye can see.
These mostly monocrop farms destroy the native biodiversity of their land due to the lack of plant diversity, but also because of the toxic pesticides used to keep any budding population of bugs from destroying the crop yield. When thinking about the importance of biodiversity for keeping o
ur environment healthy, especially as these fields get closer and closer to towns, pivoting from pesticides to forest walls to protect crops could be an extremely useful method to preserve biodiversity, while breaking up the monotony of the average farm town. Imagine driving through northern Indiana and instead of finding nothing but corn, you pass through forests, bringing wildlife back to their native stomping grounds. By making this change, we would be one step closer to having a society that coexists with
nature, instead of molding it to fit our desire, regardless of the costs to the ecosystem.
Our field trip to the sustainable banana form likewise filled me with ideas for how the US and the world could adopt measures to better utilize our space to be efficient, while also maintaining sustainable and organic farming practices. This farm, run by a single mother of three, grows over 20 types of bananas, as well as dozens of other species of herbs, spices, fruits, and vegetables. The banana trees are mere meters away from her house, and in between the rows of banana trees are plots dedicated to plants such as cilantro, turmeric, sweet potatoes, and more, while the outskirts of the yard are home to orange, avocado, fi
g, and other tree species. This diverse array of species is great for many reasons. First, many different plant species allow for a plethora of insect species to thrive, pollinating more plants and creating more food for birds, reptiles, and amphibians. Second, by allowing crops that rely on different growing conditions to coexist, instead of choosing only one and controlling the environment to fit that sole species, we can use spacemuch more efficiently, increasing crop yi
eld without increasing land area. Implementing these sustainable agricultural practices is a surefire way to bring our communities closer to nature, allowing it to thrivein our company, while rewarding us with literal fruits for our labor. A world with plenty of community gardens densely populated with many different herbs, fruits, and vegetables maintained by and benefiting everyone is a world I want to live in.
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