Community outreach

Hey guys!

Today was really awesome because I got to leave the EARTH campus for the first time I got here!

I didn't tell you guys, but I have been planning on going on a few trips off campus. One of them was today, another will be friday, and I might be going on a weekend trip next weekend. These trips are allowing me to go out into the rural Costa Rican community.

Today I went with a group of people from the USA who were from North West Michigan University, University of Florida, and Colorado. We got on a bus (an air conditioned bus) and traveled an hour or so off campus.

It was beautiful. We drove through the mountains, saw a bunch of farms, looked at a few waterfalls, and we saw a lot of things that weren't on the campus.

A house we saw on the ride up

A school a few miles away from the farm

Since it was a large group of us, we were split up into 4 groups of 3 or 4. Each group got dropped off at a different farm where we would talk to farmers about what they farm, what are some struggles they face, and how they're dealing with their struggles/ what would help them through their struggles. I lucked out and was put in a group that was going to a dairy farm. This farm was huge! The house was on top of a mountain and the pasture sloped down from there. Since there wasn't that many trees you could see the mountains in the distance. The farmer and his family owned 2 hectares of land that was previously used for an airport, then bought by cubans to grow cacao, and now it's pasture for the farmer's 10 cows.

A view from one part of the farm

A jersey cow

An EARTH student goes to this farm every once in a while to help with the grazing system. It's just like ours! I was really excited to see some of the similarities between the good practices at our farm being carried out here. The biggest difference between our farm and his farm was definitely the cattle. This farm consisted of Jersey, Holstein, and Jersey Holstein hybrids. There wasn't a single mix of Brahman! I was confused about why he didn't crossbreed them with Brahman, but it was his farm and he was doing well with the cattle he has. They had phenomenal body condition scores, there were only a couple of cows that were a 3-2.5! He didn't have any issues with Mastitis. He didn't have any electricity that could be used towards milking machinery, so he milked them all by hand. This guy was really impressive! He makes cheese for a living, but he has some crops in addition to the cattle. He uses all the crops he grows to feed his family. He showed us this tree that produced fruit called water apple. He didn't sell the fruit, so he offered some to us. I'm not a big fruit person so I let the other tourists try it. They said it was good, so I'll take their word for it. After showing us the tree and his other crops, the farmer showed us the area where he made cheese. He showed us the pails he poured the milk into, showed us the solution used to solidify the cheese, explained how to stir the cheese, showed us when the cheese is ready to dry, and let us look at the finished product. Since the farmer didn't have any electricity he didn't pasteurize the milk and he stored the cheese by putting it into a box filled with salt. The salt dehydrated the cheese so it could last for a year, which is one big benefit to this practice. It was really cool seeing how this man worked and he was very proud of his produce.

Water apple, a cheap and common fruit of Costa Rica

Cheese being set out to dry

The farmer's cheese!

The only real problem in the community he talked about was this hydro-electric dam that was being built on a lake just beyond the trees. The community was concerned because the metal used to make this dam will make the surrounding area up to 2 degrees hotter and all of the rain water will leach into the dam rather than stay in the soil. The government didn't really explain their intentions to build the dam until they bought the land. He explained that the community couldn't do anything about it. The project brought jobs to the area and the government offered to give some of the electricity to the community, however the last part might be an empty promise.

The first farmer talking to us about a hydro-electric dam that will be built beyond the trees.

After we went to this farm, we went back into the bus, picked everyone up, and headed to another dairy farm. This farm produced solely milk and used the same breeds that the other farmer used. The guy who owned this farm had a really interesting story. He used to work on a different farm 10 years ago doing the same work for less pay. Sadly, he got really sick and was laid off. The farmer was sick for 6 years until he moved to this farm and got better. The government loaned him the land and, after a few months of working, he became a partner with a mexican milk company who paid for a new milk container and better equipment. He's now producing milk for them while earning extra money on the side by artificially inseminating other cows. It was really inspiring to hear how this man's hard work brought him to economic stability.

Once we were finished talking to that farmer we got in the bus and headed back to campus. It was a really interesting experience to see what life is like for farmers outside of the EARTH campus. I can't wait for friday!

Good night guys!
-Allie