Farming Overseas

Overall I really enjoyed my visit to the farm. Since I was out of the country I was not able to visit Echo. Instead I visited a small farm in Colombia. This farm had vast amounts of green land. Acres and acres of green hills covered the farm. Small shrubs of wild berries were all around in the simple green, meadows. Further into the farm the land was divided. Some had cows, dogs, but the majority of the land had Uchuva or what we would call the Peruvian cherry. This fruit hung from wires planted over the fields, creating a vine type of blanket suspended off the ground. This farm stood out and caught my eye because it was very different to one you would see in the U.S and did not look like anything you think about when you hear the word farming in the U.S. They had very minimal electronic devices to run the farm. A few tractors but besides that it was just a ton of farmers that participated in all the work. Though the farm seemed like it followed organic farming methods in reality it did not. Some of the workers were still spraying synthetic pesticides on the plants. Its crazy that this farm so far from the Americanized farming techniques and located in such a remote area still did not follow organic farming techniques.

Besides the chemical used on the plants, the farm still seemed to be running a sustainable operation. Cow manure from the herd in the other land was used to fertilize the land. Water for their irrigation system was obtained from a nearby natural spring, and they filtered and reused as much water possible from other farming activities to use on the crops. The farmers worked on the farm 24/7 from dawn to dusk. Like stated earlier men ran the farm not machines which is very different to what we see in American farming.

The methods on this farm are very simple, and with that said I think this is very useful in such a developing world because it shows that though we are complicating our selves in everything we do we can still keep farming simple and just let nature take its course in producing the product. This would be a perfect place to volunteer; I feel that it is locations like this one where you learn to grow with nature and at the same time all the work YOU (not machines) put into it is rewarded by growing an amazing, sweet fruit such as this one, Uchuva. But sadly I cannot volunteer there because I am now 1509 miles away.