blogabroadMany people worldwide make donations to protect tropical rainforests, not because they plan on visiting or ever getting something in return, but because they believe such places and the species they host have the right to exist. It’s a pretty simple, easy decision. However, matters are complicated by land-use competition for homes, farms, and industry. Though Costa Rica may be termed a 3rd world developing nation filled with magnificent plants and animals it is by no means pristine. Established communities live here. I came expecting an agrarian society but it looks like I’m a generation too late. Worldwide the small farmer appears to be going extinct.
According to my professor, for the past five years Costa Rica has featured a service economy. Many citizens are upset by the loss of their traditional way of life; 55% of the population lives in urban areas of at least ten thousand people, and people my age don’t want the backbreaking work of life on a farm. Access to the internet and technology has led them to goals of a college education and work as lawyers, doctors, and other professionals.
Also, small farms are less profitable than large plantations (unless co-ops are formed). To gain perspective, our class took a trip to an organic cacao farm on February 2nd and then to the Dole Banana Plantation the following morning. It took a half day to travel in our Mercedes-Benz bus across the country. For those familiar with the country, some landmarks were the Braulio Carrillo highway, Braulio Carrillio National Park, La Selva private reserve, Zurqui tunnel (there were no lights in this tunnel through the mountain), Rio Sarapiqui, and La virgin de Sarapiqui. The ride felt really short because I spent the whole time glued to the window in wide-eyed wonder.
Midway there we stopped for a bathroom break at a little restaurant. Parked out front was a truck with 3 giant hardwood trees. As the trees were definitely over a century old, our professors hypothesized that they are very likely from the lowland rainforest instead of legal areas. Attached to the trees were yellow guias (guide markers) that list the species name and show that the tree was certified to be cut. These guias are often affixed to illegally cut trees; It is hard to for the police to tell if a tree is a legal species or not because most of them are not botanists. Illegal timber harvesting from protected rain forest land is a serious problem because when a tree is cut down, so are all of the epiphytes and other flora and fauna that depend on that tree.
Once in Guapiles, we experienced a second major shock: we were sprayed with a crop duster from overhead. The yellow plane hummed like a hornet as it doubled back repeatedly over the banana plantation. The air that drifted in through our bus windows tasted unpleasant (but I could have just gotten sunblock in my mouth). The chemical being sprayed was fungicide, herbicide, or pesticide. Just what every healthy human needs.
At the cacao farm, we had the good fortune of getting to see two two-toed sloths being captured. When we first arrived, Oscar, a local college student, was standing with a burlap bag. Inside of the bag was a pregnant two-toed sloth. She was not very happy about being captured. She hissed, growled, and tried to scratch with her sharp claws as the researchers tried to give her a collar with a tracking device. The University of Wisconsin funded study is being conducted in order to learn about the migration and habits of sloths in the less than ideal habitat of the coffee farm. Two-toed sloths can move at the rapid pace of 7 football fields a month (that’s 7 times faster than the three-toed sloth!). Due to habitat destruction and fragmentation, the sloths relocated to the coffee farm. The next day we got to see them track down a second male two-toed sloth because the battery in its collar needed to be replaced. After the male was released it climbed away on the cable cord that is used to transport the cacao pods.
The cacao farm that serves as a home for the displaced sloths has a very interesting business model. They see cacao farming as a means of conserving animals and biodiversity instead of just a means of making money. Albeit, a farm is not as diverse as a permanently protected forest, but while there I saw 2 species of sloth, a golden knaped woodpecker, iguanas, lizards, and lots of cool bugs and ephiphytes. That’s a lot better than what you will find in the biodiversity desert of a banana plantation.
The tour of the organic cacao was very informative. The farm was funded by an investor from Holland for use in Godiva Chocolate (yum!) and Wisconsin Museum’s “Cacao de Vida” (a.k.a. Chocolate of Life). After the initial planting it takes two to three years for the trees to become productive. Once the trees started producing fruit the best 7 trees were selected. Cuttings from these were then grafted onto the others to allow for the most productive farm. Thus all the trees produce fruit cloned from the best seven trees. This procedure improved the cacao harvest from 500 kg/hectacre/year to 1800 kg/hectacre /year. Cacao production starts when the blossoms are pollinated by insects. Next, the fruit grows and ripens from green to a ripe red-orange color. Inside the pod is a group of fruit covered seeds. The fruit is white and taste like a sweet citrus. The seeds inside are purple and taste awful. (Suck off the fruit; don’t chew the seed.)
The trees are monitored by 17 farmers who each take care of a portion of the 110 hectare farm. They keep the trees pruned so that that cacao is always in easy reach. Foliage is trimmed back to allow sunlight to reach blossoms and then allowed to grow in thickly to provide shade for the cacao pods. For fertilizer, coffee byproduct mixed with sand and ash is applied to individual trees. Rather than applying expensive, hazardous chemicals these farms check individual plants for disease. For example, to prevent the spread of monilia (aka “frosty pod”), farmers remove and destroy individual diseased fruit. Though organic gardening is more labor intensive, it is actually cheaper because industrial fertilizers and fungicides can be very costly.
When it is time to harvest, farmers chop the pods down with a machete and then drop them into their backpacks. The backpacks weigh 35 kilos when full. Each worker collects 60 backpacks a day. The full backpack is then placed on a basket hanging from one of the cables that crisscross the farm. The cable system makes transporting the cacao to the onsite processing plant less labor intensive.
Once at the processing plant the cacao pods are mechanically broken up and the shell is separated. The shells are used as fertilizer for grass pastures. The seeds are aerobically fermented for 7 days. (Aerobic means that they have to mix air into the seeds). The decomposition of the sugar in the white citrus like seed covering causes the fermentation.
Next, the seeds are laid out in drying boxes for 40-50 hours. The dried seeds are transported by an air current to an oven where they are flame toasted for 15 minutes at 140 degrees Celsius. The next step, the seeds are ground down to a paste with a steam-powered grinder. The paste is heated to 85 degrees Celsius for 8 hours to kill any bacteria and improve consistency. In three weeks this plant can produce 20 tons of chocolate to be shipped out to Europe and the United States. And you thought that your food came from a vending machine, didn’t you?
After our tour of the cacao farm we were given the opportunity to sample organic chocolate made by a co-op of local women. It was not as smooth and sweet as Hershey’s chocolate but the acquired taste grows on you. I purchased several bars of the dark chocolate to mail to Katie who’s studying abroad in Spain and to Becky and my other girls back in Baltimore. Unfortunately, I have no self-control so they have all disappeared. (There is a co-op of women who live down the street from us in La Presa and make gorgeous jewelry from seeds that they collect from the ground in the rainforest and on their farms. I’ll be sure to bring back some homemade jewelry instead, as I don’t think I’ll be tempted to munch on it.)
We spent the night in Manu, sleeping in a huge open building with a thatched roof that had bats hanging from the ceiling. Manu had a natural swimming hole and a botanic garden. The farmer who gave us a tour explained the different plants could be used to make medicines, soaps, and shampoos. There is so much to learn here! I fear my brain will be a sieve!
