Wildland Studies Final Project - Op Ed

 

    One of our two finals for this program was to write an option piece, similar to those seen in magazines. I drew on the six weeks of experiences and focused on what stook out to me the most and emerged as a new passion, out relationship with food. 

    It took me a bit to finalize it to be blog worthy since I hand wrote my original final and typed up most of the draft on my phone.  I really enjoyed looking deeper into this topic and found so many interconnecting strings. I would love to continue exploring this topic with a masters some day. But finally, here it is.

    During my six weeks spent studying abroad in Costa Rica, I decapitated a chicken. A small group of us journeyed out to the chicken coop, and caught and killed two chickens to prepare for our dinner. We then proceeded to de-feather it and observed as a woman named Maria cleaned it, separating the edible and compostable portions. Along the way, we learned some interesting biology of chickens and saw how the eggs develop from small, tomato looking things to the eggs you would see in a supermarket. What surprised me the most, however, was when asked why she was so cavalier in handling the chicken (my only concept of preparing chicken is a sterile work space with lots of constant cleaning and handwashing). She responded with there was no need, salmonella doesn’t exist in this setting.

    This spring boarded my interest in examining the relationships we hold with our food and its origin. The only reason why salmonella is an inherent risk when handling raw chicken is because of how the United States mass produces its livestock. Here at Finca Rayela, the small number of chickens are kept in open spaces and fed a variety of food including kitchen scraps and grain. And when a sick chicken does arise, they can be separated from the rest of the group to prevent contamination. In the US, the insatiable demands of poultry override proper practices and crams thousands of birds in tight enclosed spaces, often without natural light and proper exercise. According to The Human League, this high density of chickens is essentially a hot spot where diseases like salmonella become guaranteed, and need to be constantly fed antibiotics to be kept at bay. All of this to say that the methods of industrial production are causing many health risks, when it doesn’t need to be that way.

    Throughout this course, we have viewed topics through the lens of comparing the traditional narrative to the counter narrative. With respect to this topic, the traditional or dominant narrative of agriculture encompasses globalization of food, increasing market demands from the global north imposed on the global south, and mass production through industrialization and pesticide use. As Ryan Galt stated in Assessing Neoliberalism’s Impact on Agriculture and Diets, “Costa is now the world’s top pineapple producer [and] like bananas, pineapples are a heavily sprayed crop resulting in chronic illness among those living nearby.” (Galt, pg42, 2023). In order to meet global demands for pineapple year round, modern agriculture leans on pesticides to maximize viable crops and hasten growth periods for overall larger crop yields. To also meet demands, farms have shifted to monoculture. As seen in the US; endless fields of corn, and in Costa Rica, forests have been cleared and replaced by intricate rows of pineapple. This method of planting completely eradicates the soil of its nutrients while also contributing to mass amounts of pesticide contaminated soil runoff that consolidates in rivers, destroying those ecosystems. Early in this program, we stayed with the Térraba indigenous people and spoke with Don Paulino, a community elder, about the history of increasing pineapple and monoculture farms. He reflected on his youth and shared that he would come to this river, it being very clear, and while fishing would gather enough to feed his family for a whole week. We sat along that river bank seeing a rushing flood of brown instead as the current state of the great Térraba River. All of the agriculture runoff and erosion from development has devastated the river and the resources that people depended on. Pesticide use is a slow and silent killer, one that has been adopted into the traditional narrative and has been projected to farmers as the only way to grow food and survive off its profits amidst the competitive agriculture market. Even though the US has some regulation on pesticide use, the fact that they are in use at all poses a threat to all consumers. As Galt puts it in his article "It Just Goes To Kill Ticos”, pesticide “residues over a lifetime can pose real risks…[and] and in some cases, food-borne pesticides residues kill people.” (Galt, pg 6, 2009). Additionally, pesticide poisoning largely goes unidentified because symptoms “…are easily mistaken by consumers and cities alike for symptoms of other types of food poisoning…” (Galt, pg 7, 2009) The author also alluded to the fact that because pesticide poisoning is more labor intensive to distinguish from other food illnesses, it is less likely to be represented as an issue and thus undergoes less regulation to protect consumers. The exposure to pesticides or lack thereof is largely dependent on the socioeconomic status of the consumer. Not everyone can afford to purchase organic produce. There are also inconsistencies with companies greenwashing their products claiming to be low or free of pesticide usage. So what even is ‘organic’ anymore? To add to our conversation, the increased globalization of food; meaning food being grown somewhere then shipped internationally, has increased use of pesticides and artificial preservatives so that the products will survive the journey and still look appealing to consumers. This process also adds to humanity’s growing carbon footprint. Food is grown in Costa Rica, for example, packaged in another country, then put onto a large shipping vessel, arrives in the US and is distributed via armies of semi trucks, and finally arrives to grocery stores perhaps months after it was harvested. Every transportation method that products undergo is using staggering amounts of most likely fossil fuels and is just another piece in the climate crisis. In summary, the concepts of groceries on demand and the methods that supply the large stocks and variety seen in global north grocery stores come with a multitude of unforeseen health and environmental consequences.

    On the other extreme, I have experienced first hand how people are exploring the counter narratives of agriculture. We visited many farms integrating practices such as permaculture and intercropping to subside off the land in more sustainable and regenerative ways. Montagnini and del Fierro (2022) defined agroforestry as systems that “combine trees and crops or pasture on the same land [that] can increase productivity in the short and long term, while also supporting biodiversity and providing social and economic benefits for farmers.” Installing this could solve many issues related to monoculture. The increase in biodiversity would regenerate depleted soil, yielding more nutritious foods, would integrate crops to protect others from pests, eliminating the need for harsh bio-chemicals, and promote restoration/conservation of forest ecosystems all in one. The article also states that the system can be modular and made to fit the needs of the surrounding population of whom it supports. It is a way to create productive land for human consumption without the need of land clearing in order to designate it so. In this way human agriculture needs can integrate more smoothly into the existing environment instead of overcoming and dominating it only to fulfill our needs. Don Paulino integrated some of these practices on his land and not only planted crops that his family would consume but planted trees like the monkey comb to support the ecosystem around him. ‘So my brothers can eat too’ I remember him saying, referring to his monkey neighbors. Moreover, we toured Dolphin Quest, a well known permaculture farm and ecolodge and observed their land and resources use practices. Permaculture is designed to be very efficient in resource management and strategically places plants that contribute to each other’s success. On their property they used all waste and by-products in some way; their food scraps were used to feed the chickens, and liquid waste was filtered by microorganisms in a septic tank to then water surrounding plants. Reymar, a co-owner of dolphin quest, explained why he intermixed his garden beds instead of neat, aligned sections of plants that most of us are familiar with. Some plants are nitrogen fixers and are purposefully next to plants that are nitrogen deficient. For example, ‘the three sisters’, refers to a companion planting method including corn, bean, and squash utilized by North American indigenous tribes that provide mutual benefits for each crop and produces higher yields (National Parks Service, 2023). Becoming familiar with the strength and characteristics of each crop is how gardens like these maximize crop yield and vitality. Permaculture and agroforestry have been known to cultivate a richer biodiversity in plant life but also in pollinators and in soil microorganisms, all contributing to a healthier micro ecosystem.

    Tying in my chicken killing experience, there are so many alternative options to the traditional narrative imposed on mass markets that have been proven successful and are better for personal health and the environment. This traditional method of agriculture and food consumption is no longer serving its purpose of providing nutritional, diverse food to large worldwide markets. Instead, moving away from those markets and into smaller, locally based systems can be a solution to many of the issues arising within that traditional narrative. A case where this transition was successful was a community project called Los Higuerones, where they started connecting local producers to local consumers by hosting weekly markets. This not only facilitated a place for people to purchase pesticide free and locally grown food but was an investment in its social capital by establishing community relationships.

    By bringing this experience and new found knowledge back with me to the United States, I want to try to convert my empty backyard into a productive space full of integrated garden beds, a chicken coop, and maybe even a greenhouse. The average suburban house has so much front or backyard spending its time being purely decorative. If everyone planted just a few things in their yard, it would support a whole community with locally grown food. The establishment and active involvement in a community garden or food pantry would not only provide access to healthy, locally grown products but invest in social capital and strengthen communities.

    I encourage others to be critical in what they’re consuming, how it was prepared, and if there is a better way to do it yourself. Now, especially with the geopolitical status of the world, food insecurity is becoming a reality. By becoming more familiar and involved in your food source, it allows people to take control of their health and food supply.