EARTH U: Day Two
This morning we toured the dairy farm and integrated organic farm at EARTH U. before departing for the south. The diary farm was a quite modern operation. Students were artificially inseminating dairy cows when we arrived! What we really came to see was their biogas electricity generation facility. Manure from the pigs and cattle was used to generate methane, collected in large hanging blivets shown below:
Biogas Collection System
The gas is then piped to a generator that burns the methane to generate electricity.
Then we toured an integrated organic farm. I was most impressed with the number of organic systems they featured from around the world. The simplest explanation for this system was given to me by Rudolpho, the supervisor: “The plants feed the animals, the animals feed the soil, the soil feeds the plants.” In this system, waste equals food for something else. Nothing is wasted. And of course, no pesticides, inorganic fertilizers or antibiotics are used.
The picture below shows the Mandala system, which I think originates in Brazil. In the center is a circular pond, and there are eight concentric rings of plantings (one for each planet). The pond, when filled, will have fish and the small fenced area around it can house rabbits or chickens.
Mandala Garden
This 250 meter X 250 meter garden relies heavily on intercropping and polyculture. Plants are selected to feed the owners and accomplish tasks like pest control. For example, folks back home add marigolds to a garden to control nematodes (worms) that may damage roots.
We left EARTH about 10 am, then drove about 8 hours south-mostly in the RAIN-in a vintage Toyota Tercel with bad shocks. We were probably 8,000-10,000 feet for over half the drive, so we saw a lot of white (clouds). Had a flat tire on the way, but the driver changed the tire in under 5 minutes. We arrived at Las Cruces Biological Station another OTS site like La Selva. It is located near the small town of San Vito near the Panamanian border. The food and lodging are wonderful, but I can’t tell you much about what it looks like until the clouds clear and the sun rises.
