ORGANIC CERTIFICATION: This week I visited an organic coffee farm on the outskirt of San Ramon. The farm is owned by Patricia, someone who cares about nothing more than growing quality café. Her three acre plot of land has had to jump through a few hoops before receiving the organic status, more hoops than one might think. To get organic accreditation, an agency must visit the farm and make sure everything is up to par, in Patricia's case, the agency was Ecologica. They make sure that there are absolutely no chemical inputs going into the production of this coffee, from the pesticides to the fertilizer. Patricia explained that this can be challenging because it intensifies manual labor by a shocking amount. One small example she gave me was in regard to the weeds that grow on the property. While most conventional farms would use herbicides, she uses a weed eater. There are many little differences such as this one that increase the workload. As if this added labor isn’t enough there is another large aspect maintaining organic certification. Patricia has to keep books of absolutely every single thing she does on a day to day basis for Ecologica to be able to see. These books include keeping all the receipts of the products she uses on the farm so she has a verifiable audit trail. This ensures that everything she uses n the farm is 100% organic. The cherry on top of this organic certification is that it cost around $1,200 every year for Ecologica to visit the property and see that all is natural. It makes you wonder why anyone would go through all the trouble of being organic when there are so many obstacles and check points.
ORGANIC FERTILIZER: Located on the western edge of the farm is a chicken coop. This is where the 100% organic fertilizer is made. The three different types of animals responsible for its production are chickens, cows, and one horse. Patricia told me that when using organic fertilizer it is necessary to constantly check the temperature. If the pile is too dry she just adds water. When the pile is too wet she adds more dry materials. Ingredients of the fertilizer include vegetable matter, trimmed branches and other cuttings, rice hulls, shredded sugar cane, and all left over food peelings. Those ingredients mixed with the animal waste make for a healthy fertilizer that Patricia's coffee plants just can’t get enough of. Fertilizer is a mixture of carbon, nitrogen and green materials. Getting the right combination of all three is similar to getting a cooking recipe right. When all come together correctly heat is released and organic material begins to get broken down. Throughout the process of fertilizer being made there are different stages that include different organisms, these organisms are responsible for breaking down the organic material. Another large aspect in the creation of the fertilizer is oxygen. Too much moister is bad so the fertilizer needs to be aired out from time to time. Understanding how the fertilizer is made truly puts the effort organic farmers exemplify into perspective.
BIRD FRIENDLY: This is the very first bird friendly coffee farm in Costa Rica located on the outskirts of San Ramon. The Smithsonian approved agency that gave the farm its bird friendly title is Ecologica, the same agency that gave them their organic coffee farm certification. Coffee grown in shade of tree canopies, rather than on land cleared of vegetation, allows a number of species of birds to thrive in the area. Baltimore Orioles are among the migratory birds in the area. The shade in the farm offers food and shelter for the different species of birds. With the amount of birds living in the area, it provides a great breeding spot as well. The farm meets the basic requirements for successful breeding: plenty of places to build nests, nests that are safe from predators, and plenty of foraging areas. The field maintenance is very important to the success or failure for nesting birds. The birds are often seen foraging on the grass and trees in the shaded canopies around the farm. This farm does not use any pesticides, chemical fertilizers, and herbicides, which is great for the birds because it does not harm them in anyway. In addition to birds, shaded coffee plantations offer habitat for orchids, insects, mammals, reptiles, and amphibians.
BIRD FRIENDLY TREES: Trees are the main component of a farm being bird friendly certified. There are two different types of shade that make up the cool conditions birds and coffee plants thrive in. The first is rustic shade, which is shade that consists of natural forest species. Patricia explained to me that she had to plant a variety of native trees in her farm to gain bird friendly status. This is a traditional polyculture in that there are many different species of trees with different ages and heights growing amongst each other. Planted shade is the other type; it usually consists of a backbone of shade produced by a certain species of tree. In Patricia's case this is the poro tree, which provides year round shade and is a nitrogen-fixing legume. Another requirement of bird friendly farms regarding trees is a strict policy on the number of species in a certain area. First there has to be trees that meet a certain height requirement and secondly there needs to be at least 10 different species of trees planted within 50 meters of those that meet the height requirement. Patricia's bird friendly certification is another example of her going out of her way and creating more work for herself in order to better the environment.
ORGANIC BUSINESS: It is difficult for a small organic coffee farm to compete in the farming industry to make money. By being a small organic coffee farm it does not bring much money in for the farmer and there is little help from the Costa Rican government. With more sunlight larger farms are able to grow more plants. The coffee in the larger sunlit farms grows in mass quantities but the quality of it is not as good as small organic shade-grown coffee. Larger conventional farms use lots of fertilizers to produce more crops. The chemical fertilizer damages the soil, and the only way to continue growing coffee is to buy and use more fertilizer. When big conventional farms continue to use fertilizer, the companies that sell fertilizer get more business. The reason why conventional farms use chemical herbicide is because it is faster for their crops. In this small organic coffee farm, Patricia has to hire workers in order to harvest and care for the coffee. This takes away money that she receives from selling it. Patricia is the type of owner who doesn’t care too much about the money, but cares about helping out others and with her love for nature. She has not been able to make a profit from her farm because it is hard to compete, so she continues to grow her coffee because she loves what she does.
LAND WORTH: Patricia’s neighbor had recently sold their land. They found out it was the most economically sound idea to sell the farm. They were not making a profit from the product they were selling. Patricia is having thoughts about doing the same thing with her farm. She has some mixed feelings about it and doesn’t really know what to do right now. She wants to keep the farm organic, but thinks that a developer will just buy it and not keep it organic. Patricia thinks this might be the best idea because she is struggling with keeping the farm running. It is very difficult for her and she wants to keep the farm more than anything. Her plan is to sell it as soon as she can so she doesn’t have to worry about it anymore. The biggest thing she wants is to keep it organic, but she really thinks that’s not possible at all. It will be sad for her to see it go because it has been in her family for many years, but she knows its for the best and will help her out in the long run.
AUTHORS: Blake LeCroy & Jordan Kalebaugh
