Farmers like Don Guillermo appears to live a modest life of hard work.  Costa Rican farms seem to mostly be family business so many farmers have been doing it their whole lives and have been raising their children in the industry. Guillermo runs a farm that specializes in producing coffee and largely sells unroasted green beans.  He makes a lot of decisions that makes this farm more sustainable, both for cost efficiency but also for environmental protection. His fields of coffee plants are surrounded by large trees.  These was done for a few reasons: they act as a wind break for the coffee plants to protect them during the windy seasons, they are part of the plantations reforesting effort, and they draw bugs and diseases away from the crops (if these trees were not here then all the bugs and diseases would be concentrated on the plantations valuable crops).  Among these trees are several banana trees which are also harvested by Guillermo and the other workers.  By spending several hours speaking with Don Guillermo it is evident that he is very passionate about his work within the coffee industry and the strides his plantation has made in becoming more sustainable. While it is a coffee plantation there are also some other minor crops grown, such as a tomatoes and basil, and there is some livestock on the property (some livestock appears in the featured image).  Like the other plantations we visited Don Guillermo recycles the parts of the coffee bean that do not directly go into making a cup of coffee but he also uses goat manure for fertilizer in the fields and he burns methane from pig manure for various uses.

Don Guillermo seems to take joy in the farming he does as well as in preserving and protecting the environment around him.  He also enjoys teaching people about the work that he does, he spoke with us about some internships he does on his plantation and how some kids from a juvenile detention center in Michigan came down to work on his farm at one point.  His work is not just about farming, it is about educating and enlightening others. However, one of the biggest challenges he is facing now is the fact that the younger generations do not want to work on plantations.  Many people, including his children, are getting degrees from universities and some are even leaving the country. The future of the coffee industry and many of these plantations will soon rest in the hands of these younger individuals and it will be interesting to see how many return to take up the business of their parents.

Don Guillermo does not seem to use many advanced technology on his plantation. He has a device to collect the methane from decomposing pig manure but other than that he uses pretty simple practices to enforce his sustainability. Some of these include using worm composting for the coffee bean shells, the collecting of goat manure for fertilizer (compost pile shown below) and using plants and forestry as natural bug and disease deterrents.  Guillermo made it clear that many of his practices are long term, 20-50 years, and that some of them may seem foolish in the short term few but that they will pay off in the long run.  These practices are especially true for agriculture and environmental sustainability.