Today we visited a strawberry farm and a waterfall park, both of which claimed to value sustainability while hiding some questionable aspects of their business. Specifically, the strawberry farm raved about thier enviromentaly sustainable practices, but failed to mention any sociality sustainable practices.
The owner of the strawberry farm was clearly enthusiastic about growing strawberries. He eplained how they grow native plants (Cow’s Tounge, Cypress, and Cafecillo) to feed the birds and deter them from eating the strawberries while providing value to the ecosystem. The farm also uses the wind and specialized structuring of the greenhouses to maintain temperatures in the greenhouses year-round without the use of electricity. They plant their strawberries in long skinny bags of coconut fiber which maintains the prefered amount of moisire in the soil, and the natural decomposition process fertilized the straberries. Finally, the farm doesnot use pesticides on thier strawberries to avoid the plant absorbing that taste and smell; the pH from th e natural fertilizer deters any bugs from eating or laying eggs in the strawberries.
Obviously, the owner takes great pride in finding the most enviromentaly sustainable practices, but he never talked much about who actually works on his labor intensive crop. Because business love to make as much profit as posible, and fruit’s market prices are usulay determined by the global market, it is usually important to fruit business owners to find the cheapest labor available. In Costa Rica, that labor comes from Nicaraguan Immigrants who are not usually paid a fair wage. This labor model is not very sustainable for the business, becuase the status of immigrants is highly volatile, or for sociaty, because if an ethnic group is valued less (or paid less) in a labor market, they are likely to be valued less in sociaty.
