Gretchen: Pura Vida, We Have Arrived

We arrived in Costa Rica after a long, cramped flight, and we were greeted by our hosts, Alex and Fabian.  Th next day, after an absolutely beautiful breakfast of gallo pinto (typical Costa Rican breakfast food of rice and beans) at the San Lorenzo Inn, we took a busied to CATIE University, and let me tell you, it was such an inspirational visit.  A little bit of background: CATIE was created from a land-grant model of sorts during World War 2, because the US was investing rubber trees.  Once artificial rubber was invited, CATIE focused on different sciences such as sustainable agriculture and environmental protection.

One of the very first things our host at CATIE told was that no one in the school recycles, because they consider the practice "unsustainable".  This took me and many others in our group by surprise because we have been taught from an early age to "reduce, reuse, and recycle." I was about to protest to his claim that recycling is a poor practice until he explained further, saying, "we must forget the lifestyle of 'going green'." What he said was entirely true: if we truly want to live a sustainable lifestyle, we should try to focus on reducing our waster production all together.

This prevention first method is TRULY sustainable, and it makes so much sense to me.  Recycling is a sort-of 'band-aid' approach to a quick fix.  CATIE teaches that it is important to look at our problems creatively, and note that they are intertwined with other problems.  If we truly wish to make progress in our battle against the human destruction of our world, we must do so in an integrated manner (i.e.: our lives and choices all affect each other.  At CATIE, they study in such a way that each profession is important for all topics under the sun.

Another interesting aspect about our visit at CATIE that really made me think was at the end of our tour.  Prove (The professor) took us to a small pond that had an island full of bamboo plants and the bamboo branches were full of white storks who had built their nest in the safety.  He used this as a metaphor for a sustainable lifestyle.  If something detrimental happens to the island or bamboo, what happens to the birds? They have to have a back up plan.  We must all have a backup plan in order to be sustainable.  In our food systems, we do not have a resilient force behind our production, we must have access to a successful alternative and CATIE dedicates themselves to figuring out these alternatives.  CATIE operates under the notion that we will one day be able to look back on our past mistakes within our agricultural practices and livelihood and actually understand that we were making mistakes.  Profe said he has faith that we will be able to do this, because we have solved and overcome many problems in the past.

So far, our trip has been stimulating and relaxing.  I would not have it any other way.  I cannot wait to see what the rest of the week has in store for us! Pura Vida!