Inferably, grueling daily physical labor makes up most of Tico farmers’ days–but with this, I noticed that many of the decisions they make as they go about their lives are centered around environmental sustainability. For example, our tour guide at Life Monteverde today recounted how he always reminds his 12 year old son to pick up garbage on the road, no matter if it was his own or not. In addition, when we went to go paint the elementary school today, our tour guide came along and brought tree branches from the farm to extend the paint rollers, taking advantage of already-existing natural resources. These examples alone exemplify how much of a role striving for sustainability plays in the lives of Tico farmers.

Probably the biggest challenge opposing Tico farmers is climate change, and the lack of rain, specifically. Some areas may be able to use sprinklers, for example, to combat the lack of rainfall, but other regions without access to sprinklers or similar tools may have to rely on biofertilizer instead to water crops. Through the fermentation of corn, rice, water, molasses, and naturally-occuring microorganisms, biofertilizer delivers moisture to crops as an alternative to conventional crop watering practices. A second challenge Tico farmers face is choosing between productivity and conservation on their farms. For example, Don Guillermo stated today that he had decided to cut down the beautiful 90-year old guava tree on the farm property (it was even the logo of Life Monteverde!!) in order to make room for 50 or so more coffee plants, and in turn, more profit, at the cost of conserving one of the main selling points of Life Monteverde.

Here’s a great example of using technology to create a sustainable farm. After tending to the crops, Life Monteverde’s automatic water dripping system returns the water back to the tank to be recycled, and later reused to water the crops again in order to minimize water waste. As for engineering, I would say that the creative problem-solving process involved in engineering design plays a great role in creating sustainable farms. Examples of this include adapting to using and creating biofertilizer to offset the effects of climate change, and experimenting with which kind of medium was ideal to grow the crops in (turns out, compost was drying them out, so sticking to regular soil was better).

If I were the child of a Tico farmer, I don’t think I would follow in their footsteps and become a farmer myself–in all honesty, I don’t think I have the physical strength or motivation, but this doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t want to help at all on my family’s farm. I might still pursue a degree in engineering, like civil or environmental, and use my knowledge to create more sustainable technology for the farm, like the automatic watering system above.

Lastly, being part of a community matters because it makes you feel connected to, and therefore responsible for, the people and environment around you. In the case of the Tico farmers, being part of that community doesn’t just mean tending to the animals and plants on the farm: it also includes building relationships with fellow workers, doing your own part to protect the environment, and encouraging others to do the same.