Today we visited Life at Monteverde. This is a local farm in Monteverde that grows different crops to be used in a cafe and they grow coffee to sell. They are super focused on sustainable practices and finding new ways to grow crops and utilize natural resources. A lot of the workers live on the farm land and there is a school within Life at Monteverde as well. We had the amazing opportunity to volunteer at the school and paint out the outside fence. This allowed us to get a peek into the local Costa Rican lifestyle and see how their elementary schools differed from those of the United States. All the people in Monteverde and of Life at Monteverde know each other and have created their own community.

After speaking with two of the guides of Life at Monteverde it was obvious that the farmers get their joy from harvesting the crops and using innovation to create new ways to better these crops. One of the big projects that they do is creating their own biofuel that serves as a really strong fertilizer. They brewed their own through several steps of adding different ingredients to make sure the plants were getting the microorganism and probiotics it needs. They are also happy through sharing the farm and its values with people. Our tour guide showed the coffee process for them and her ability to share allowed people to learn just as the farm is learning. However, there are some challenges of living on this farm. They rely heavily on crops in order to create money and when crops don’t do well they lose the opportunity to do well. They explained that it can be tricky to pick fuel baskets of coffee cherries in the early/seasons.

We then discussed how coffee is not the top export of the county. The number one export is pineapples followed by medical technology. Many people who are college graduates don’t want to work in the agriculture industry. The farming industry needs young people to stay because no one is interested anymore. Many of these workers come from Nicaragua due to the political conditionals.Life Monteverde is working to draw graduates back to Monteverde to use their talents.The number of farmers is decreasing and people are concerned for farms future. Life at Monteverde makes it very easy for the workers to live. There is a school, which we competed our service project at. There is a housing as well.

I think that tech and engineering play a huge role in creating a sustainable farm. This is because we need to be creative and think of different ways to use our resources. For example, the farm created its own fertilizer. The engineers were able to take their known information on what plants need and they developed a fertilizer that positively affects the plants. Without this the crops wouldn’t be growing to their fullest and it is made from totality reused and naturally made ingredients.

If I was a child of a farmer I would devout my life to conservation.Life Monteverde farm is surrounded by the cloud forest and the ecosystem of this forest affects the farming.Focusing on conservation will provide the opportunity to save the rainforest while also preserve the farming of Monteverde. We are currently seeing effects of climate change with in the country and if we don’t stop it, there will be changes to the multiple farms and plantations surrounding the forest, the different ecosystem would greatly disturb the crops. Along with peoples sources of income

I am definitely learning a lot about sustainability and conservation on this trip and I am super excited to learn more! I can’t not believe we are already one week done. See you tomorrow to start week 2!