Today’s visit to Life Monteverde provided a great deal of insight int the life of a Costa Rican farmer. One of the biggest takeaways from today was how almost everything on the farm is utilized, whether this be the coffee plants, fruit, animals, or other greenery. Life Monteverde is a very sustainable farm that utilizes all its resources the best it can, such as composting dead produce or figuring out new ways of watering plants.

While these are all very positive, there are many challenges that come with life as a Costa Rican farmer; namely, rapidly changing societal and technological shifts. It’s often hard to keep up with the progress that is constantly occurring, but sometimes this progress ends up hurting other areas of development. Polluted air from industry sites, not only in Costa Rica, but other neighboring countries as well, contributes to a number of problems for farms and plantations in Costa Rica that are hard to regulate. Additionally, lack of water on very dry days has proven to be difficult for the farmers at Life Monteverde.

However, through new modes of technology and by applying engineering to the problems at hand, Life Monteverde is able to do its best to sustain itself while also tackling these other issues. As previously mentioned, the farm has developed a way to store old rainwater and supply it back to the plants in the greenhouse, but also looks for new ways to sustain the local environment through composting and sharing resources.