A Picture is worth 1000 words

 This picture represents a Costa Rican and world struggle against the exploitation of small farmers. This is the outdoor kitchen of a coffee plantation that I visited with my classmates. Our lunch was cooked on this wood stove and grown in the dirt surrounding it. The Women who owns and operates this small plantation provides coffee to the local market as well as bananas, oranges, and other fruits. Much of Costa Rica’s agriculture is owned by large corporations that use large unsustainable areas to produce as much as they can as fast as they can. Donya is unlike these corporations in that her small plantation functions in a way that is not harmful to the environment. She plants trees surrounding her crops in order to prevent erosion and maintain natural habitat for wildlife. She does not grow mono-crops, but has bananas, coffee, and more in the same areas. She ferments her own natural fertilizer from fruit that would otherwise go to waste.