Carlos and his farm in the Cloud forest

View from the farm

Our guest house on the farm.

The next journey took an extra two or three hours from Junin. We had to take another bus then hike for an hour. It was worth it. At the farm, we were told about some of the struggles they went through with mining companies.  They tried to destroy the land for extremely small amounts of copper and other minerals.  One ton of the earth only yields thirteen pounds of copper.  As copper becomes rarer, it is profitable to mine in places like this.  The copper yield in Junin is less than a tenth of the copper yield in most mines, but it is still profitable to mine.  These forests are the lungs of the world, and we are choosing copper over fresh air.  It does not make any sense to me.  As they continue their struggle, they like to have visitors.  This is because they like to educate people about this problem, and they like to show them why these forests are worth saving. Carlos showed us their different techniques of farming, which made much more sense than the way we farm.  Instead of using a monoculture, he planted all different crops right beside each other.  Consequently, there is no need to rotate crops.  Not to mention, the coffee tastes better, because it is in the shade of other plants.  The coffee doesn’t need nearly as much attention either.  It makes perfect sense, it is more natural than 50 acres of corn that needs pesticides, fertilizers, and crop rotation.  There is a lot we can learn from Carlos, and I hope that his ideas catch on in other countries.