Picture this. You are walking on a trail that has been weathered by time. You hear a howler monkey scream in the distance, birds singing in constant melody, a continual buzzing noise of an unidentified frogs or insects. You are underneath the canopy; above you is green, green, and green, hundreds of different types of plant species, (you hear in your head the distant song of the Jurassic Park theme song). You are in the rainforest.
Through the different array of subjects that my blog has taken, for my final blog I decided to focus on the perspective of people’s ideas of agriculture. Many people may not know that agriculture is the leading cause of biodiversity loss, people may not care, and people may see it as hopeful. I decided to dive into these questions, and question a full spectrum of people from sustainable agriculture farmers, progressive farmers, people who know of the agriculture degradation, and people with no prior knowledge of the subject. Of course, in this blog I get to compare different cultures and their relationship with agriculture as well: Costa Rica, the United States, and Mexico (my parent’s country).
First, the different cultures must be discussed. The United States is driven by consumerism, and achieving the American Dream. The American Dream is a vague notion of having money, being comfortable, and living in abundance. This notion drives people to consume in excessive amounts that detach them from everything they buy. This can be from the clothes on their back to the meals they eat. The sense of being comfortable also makes it inconvenient for Americans to care. They want the cheapest meals, the cheapest clothing, the easiest route to take (to take a burden out of their chaotic and busy life), that they do not care how or where their goods are made. This desire to consume without care, is masked by ideas of progressivism, of development, that make everything sound greener in our side of the fence.
Mexico is a different culture that I decided to see, to create more variables and widen my perspectives. Mexico is a special case. It is still a developing world, next to one of the most industrialized and consumer driven nation in the world. In theory Mexico should be more aware of what it consumes, yet throughout the years the American mindset has been leeching into the Mexican culture. Consumerism, in rich areas at least, has also taken over. People are detached of what they eat, wear, and buy. Convenience has become more important than morals. In other areas, people are more aware of what they use, as many times it is them who produce the clothing, grow the food, and make their things. There is a more family and friend oriented atmosphere in these areas where they are more in touch with each other and nature itself.
Now Costa Rica: I will be talking about a narrow spectrum of observations of the culture that I got in a single week. The Costa Rican culture as I observed, was more in touch with nature than any other community I had observed in my life. The people there had a sense of their surroundings and of conservation. It was the small things that got our attention. In even the “poorest” of the areas there were five recycling bins, the locals knew about the biodiversity near them as they grew up knowing only that (this meant they would appreciate it more), and they walked and biked everywhere. Cars were seemingly non-existent, as well as the consumer lifestyle Americans have grown to love. Just as one of my colleagues observed, “Even without intention, these kids will grow up living with a mindset of conservation”.
When having all this in mind, I went on to interview a person in each of these cultures. I wanted to see their views of sustainability, and whether they were optimistic about the future of agriculture. The first person I interviewed was David, from the Green orn Project. He is an all American man, with a strong background in sustainable agriculture. He is highly optimistic about the future of agriculture. He believes in grassroots organizations, such as Green Corn, that are beginning to create change and shake things up for the people. Additionally, he also sees the dark side of agriculture, and believes that while sustainability will be the key to the future, it will take a long time to get there (too long and we will go over the tipping point).
In a similar token, I interviewed an American friend, who was not familiar with any aspect of sustainability. I explained to her the impact that agriculture has in the world and biodiversity. She was very shocked, and confessed that she did not know this beforehand. She had a very melancholic view of agriculture afterward and even said she was not hopeful for the future of sustainable agriculture saying that at least Americans will not change their ways because of the inconvenience it will cause them.
Another person I interviewed was my father. My father grew up in a farm in Mexico, owned by my grandparents. He did not practice sustainable agriculture per say, he did use several pesticides in the farm. My father did know of several sustainable agriculture methods, before it became a main topic of our now usual conversations. He on the other hand has a more dark view of the future. He believes that sustainable agriculture will be our way out of a future of soil destruction that we have created. He stated that the only way sustainable agriculture will become a norm, will be if a catastrophe were to occur, where we have no choice but to got that route.
Finally, In Costa Rica while I did not interview someone in particular, I did observe the views of the students in Earth University who were all studying agriculture. These students brought hope to my life. They had the most optimistic view of the future, in regards to agriculture. Of course, they had negative feedback of people’s actions (especially Americans), but the way they talked was very hopeful. They have ideas, and innovative ways of approaching conventional agriculture that made me hopeful of the future of agriculture.
In conclusion, I must say that there was a correlation between the optimistic views of sustainable agriculture with culture and whether people work in agriculture. The American people I interviewed, seemed optimistic at first but soon felt negative about the future of sustainable agriculture. This may impact the way they will act towards agriculture in the future, maybe adapt a “oh well, all hope is lost” type of attitude. My father went around the same route. He talked in a positive manner, but ended up thinking negatively about the future of agriculture. Finally, the student from Earth University told of a different story. They were optimistic all together. They believed that without a doubt sustainable agriculture is the answer of not only the future but the present as well.
Costa Rica changed my life. I brought me closer to passionate and kind people. It helped me start conversations that before, I did not know how to start. It brought hope to me, that sustainable agriculture is going to become the norm in the future, people are going to care, and together we will change the world. More than anything, it ignited a fire in all of us, promising that we will push conservation and fight to change the status quo of our culture to one of conservation and care. Thank you Costa Rica and all the beautiful people that came along in this trip that changed my life! PURA VIDA!
Citations
http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/data-mine/2016/02/03/even-americans-cant-afford-the-american-dream
http://www.everyculture.com/Bo-Co/Costa-Rica.html
Mauro Leos
David Huebel
http://www.livescience.com/38647-mexican-culture.html