A Day at the Plantation, a Night at the Finca

"Saving the last remnants of the natural environment requires more than just scientific information. There are also formidable economic and political problems to be overcome. Growing populations need new land and increased food production. The priorities of the desperately poor do not include saving the fauna and flora of their country. Funds must be raised to purchase much of the land from private owners, and then to pay for the protection and management of the reserves. To gain the support of local peoples, educational programs are needed to convey the importance of wild lands to sustaining their own environment in a healthy state. The poor need to be helped to a better life on the land they already occupy." - E.O. Wilson, "Only Humans Can Halt the Worst Wave of Mass Extinction Since the Dinosaurs Died"
My Food-Life Crisis
I love to start the day with a hot cup of coffee sweetened with sugar and mellowed by cream. Add a small dish of pineapple, melon, and banana chunks and it's the breakfast of toucans. I am an unabashed consumer of Costa Rica's principal agricultural exports and contributer to the 6.5% of the Costa Rican gross domestic product they represent.

The produce for which Costa Rica is known is as alien to Costa Rica as I am.  The Spanish introduced coffee from Africa and brought bananas first to the Caribbean and then to Costa Rica. Pineapples are native to southern Brazil and Paraguay. Indigenous people spread the cultivation of pineapples throughout Central America and the Caribbean. Sugar cane originated in southern Asia.  Melons have their origins in Africa and Asia.  Despite their historical immigrant status, In the grocery store these foods carry the label "Product of Costa Rica."

My breakfast requires economies of scale to produce. Forests are cleared to create plantations that practice monoculture cropping in vast fields. Pesticides are required to control insects. 
The harvesting and processing of the agricultural products is a source of employment, but wages are low and conditions are rigorous.
More forests must be cleared for paved roads to transport the food from processing centers to ports for shipping to global locations. Fossil fuel is burned by transport trucks and ships contributing ancient carbon to the atmosphere. 
The agribusiness of Costa Rica is not so different from the agribusiness of New Jersey, but the ecological impact of agribusiness is greater in Costa Rica than in New Jersey. My consumer behavior contributes to the environmental degradation of Costa Rica's natural flora and fauna, loss of biodiversity, and global climate change. I am experiencing a food-life crisis.
A Day at the Plantation
EARTH University is a private education initiative that models sustainable agriculture and fosters entrepreneurship in Central America, South America, and Africa. EARTH University manages a banana plantation that provides a classroom for students and employment for the local workforce. The objective of research at the EARTH banana plantation is to reduce use of agrochemicals that contaminate water supplies, to decrease worker exposure to cancer-causing pesticides, and to improve working conditions in the field and processing facility. The plantation serves as a model for other large-scale growers.
Bananas are a monoculture crop. The plantation is a "forest" of nothing but banana plants in varying stages of maturity. The broad leaves of the mature banana plants block light to anything that might try to grow beneath the plants. The banana leaves are so large that they need to be cut back to limit competition among the banana plants.
Although banana plants resemble trees, they are really herbs and the bananas are berries. The plant produces male flowers, female flowers, and sterile flowers. Bananas grow from  female flowers. One plant will produce one spike-like stalk bearing a varying number of hands of bananas. As the berries develop, the male and sterile flowers wither and drop off the plant.
A hand of bananas is the bunch you buy at the grocery store. It you think of bananas as looking like fingers, the term hand makes sense. Once the bananas ripen, the plant dies. One plant produces one hand of bananas during its lifetime.
Mature banana plants reproduce by sending out roots that sprout into new plant stalks. When bananas are cultivated, only one shoot is allowed to grow to maturity. This ensures that the plant will produce bananas for the next crop. Workers must prune back all the suckers to ensure that only one plant will be the offspring of the parent.
 Banana plants require the rich, fertile, moist soil associated with volcanic activity and river floodplains. Because the large leaves lose vast amounts of water by transpiration, banana stands need deep watering. This requires irrigation during drier periods of the year.
Bananas are a high maintenance crop. Once the bananas begin to grow, they must be covered in tough plastic bags to protect them, not from monkeys, but from insects and the sun. Normally the bags are treated with chemicals. EARTH University does not embed chemicals into the plastic. 
Fungicides and pesticides must be applied by spraying even at EARTH University. These agriochemicals contribute to soil and water contamination. Leaves that might damage the bananas need to be pruned. Emerging shoots need to be managed. 
As the bananas reach their harvest time, foam inserts are slipped between the hands to keep the fingers from bruising during transportation to the processing facility. At most plantations, the heavy spikes of bananas are carried from the field by workers. At EARTH University, workers remove the bananas from the plants and hang them onto a transport system called the "banana train." The banana train carries the bananas from the field to the processing plant. This innovation uses fuel, but improves conditions for the workers.

After the bananas reach the processing facility, workers remove the plastic bags, spray the bananas with water, and inspect the hands. Using a machete, the inspector cuts one banana from each spike checking for quality. At most plantations the plastic bags are left in the field or enter the trash stream. At EARTH University the bags and foam inserts are recycled.

The bananas continue to a water bath for cleaning. Bananas are sorted by hand into first and second quality. First quality bananas will receive labels and be sold in stores such as Whole Foods. Second quality bananas will be used in baby food. Excess bananas will be shipped to other retailers with a different label from the EARTH label sold at Whole Foods. Some will be sold domestically. 
The final step involves an organic fungicide that kills any fungus that might still be on the bananas. The use of an organic fungicide was pioneered at EARTH. Damaged waste bananas are transported to the universities livestock farm and fed to the pigs.
Processed banana hands are packed and shipped by truck to the Port of Limon. From Limon, bananas travel by ship to ports along the Gulf Coast and East Coast of North America. Trucks carry the bananas to distribution centers and then to local grocery stores. It takes about a month for a banana to reach the produce aisle after leaving the field.
Watch the video to learn more.

Back in the field, the spent banana plants need to be cleared. EARTH University converts the banana plant fiber into paper by mixing the fiber with used paper collected for recycling. The paper product is rough and fibrous. Although it is too rough and thick for writing paper, it is good for notebook covers and packaging material. 

Consider the following
Large-scale commercial banana plantations use fertilizers, pesticides, and fungicides. What is the difference between an organic banana and a nonorganic banana? 
Another label that appears on imported foods is "fair trade." What does fair trade mean?
A Night at the Finca
After a day at EARTH University learning about sustainable agricultural practices, we board a bus for the short ride to a finca (farm) at Barrio la Argentina that participates in EARTH University's homestay program. The homestay is a way for tourists to experience Costa Rican family life. Think of it as a bed-and-breakfast with lunch and dinner thrown in.
I and two other teachers are dropped at the Finca Maria Jose. Kelly is a Spanish teacher. John and I do not speak Spanish. As we walk up the path to meet the Jose family, Kokia's song "The Power of Smile" runs through my head. It's a great thought, but Japanese song lyrics stuck in my head isn't really helping. Every phrase in Spanish I ever knew is gone. If I were to try to speak Spanish, i'd be channeling Mayor Blumberg during Hurricane Irene (that's not a good thing). So, I smile, my teeth showing like a monkey and hope that I am saying "Hello, my name is...".
I had no need to be concerned. Although this was new to me, it was just another day at the office, er finca, for the Jose family. Ecotourism is just one aspect of the finca's diversified business plan. Through Kelly we learn that the farm is named for the Jose's youngest daughter Maria, who was born the same year that the family joined the EARTH University finca program. 
The family matriarch Dona Ana Jose is a member of a women's farm cooperative. Her husband Don Rogelio Jose works from just after sunrise to just before sunset at a local pineapple plantation. Three of the five Jose children are grown and have moved away from home. Two daughters still live at home. Maria who is 10 years old attends school. and takes care of the small animals. Laura is a high school student. During the day she babysits her young niece  and at night attends school. Laura is also responsible for the family food preparation.
In addition to traditional farming activities, the family manages a sports field and concession stand. The concession area is also rented out for events. As we were leaving the finca on Sunday, the food area was being decorated for a wedding scheduled for the afternoon.

The finca is a small scale family farm that uses sustainable agriculture best practices that we saw in place at EARTH University. Dona Ana Jose grows medicinal herbs that she sells locally for income. Her greenhouse collapsed under heavy rainfall and, while we were visiting, local construction workers were making repairs. It's hard to think of needing a greenhouse in the tropics, but young plants need to be sheltered from heavy rain, excessive sunlight, and insect predators. Ornamental plants also need protection in order to develop attractive leaves and flowers. In addition to managing a garden that rivals any pharmacy, Dona Ana Jose makes organic soap and dries rice.
During the evening of our stay at Finca Maria Jose, we make soap. Three teachers staying at the neighboring Finca Chiquita stop by for soap making. The fat needed for soap comes from pigs grown on the farm that are slaughtered for food and sold locally. Lye, a caustic base needed to break down the fat, is purchased. I was surprised by this because my grandmother made lye from wood ashes and water. However, after thinking a little more, the wood ash my grandmother used came from northern hardwoods burned a fireplace and wood stove. It's not a local ingredient here at the finca. 
The scents and oils used in the soap come from the herb garden. The soap is molded into rainforest animal and flower shapes and packaged in origami boxes made from recycled paper. Soap products are sold locally and to tourists.

Organic bananas are grown on the farm for local consumption. The bananas that do not go to market are fed to the pigs. What goes in to the pig, must come out. Even the manure finds a use on the farm. The pens and pigs are washed daily. The manure is captured in biodigester bags and decomposed into methane and compost. The methane is captured for cooking fuel and the compost is used in the garden. 
Pork is a staple meat in Costa Rican cooking and the star of Christmas dinner. The immature and suckling pigs sold to market are part of the business of the farm. In addition to pigs, chickens and eggs are also sold to produce income. Other farm animals include cows and goats for dairy products and sheep for wool. I am not sure if lanolin from the wool is used in the soap. 



Some farms such as Finca Chiquita also have tilapia ponds. The fish are managed so that only juvenile male fish are harvested for sale. The reproductive females and adult male fish are retained in the pond to continue fish production. As we caught fish, we inspected them to make sure that the pink females and large speckled males were returned.
Electricity to run modern conveniences such as lights, a computer, and television is purchased by the family. This may be one of the few things not produced on the farm, at least not yet. Although there is dependence on fossil fuels for electricity, the net carbon balance for the farm is zero because of the carbon capture and cycling that occurs during the sustainable agricultural practices.
More Photos from the Finca
Compare a day in the life of Maria Jose to a day in your life. What would you need to learn in order to live on the farm?

 

Back to My Food-Life Crisis
Suggest changes in my consumer habits that could reduce my impact on the environment. For example, giving up coffee with sugar and cream is not negotiable, but I could purchase shade tree grown organic coffee.


Check This Out
How to Grow Bananas at Home


photo credits for finca pictures: Kelly Foss, Chuck Palmer, John Elfrank-Dana, and Lori Chen