The bottom of the mountainside where the river shaped the base seemed so far away as I peered out of the window of the van. The lush rainforest broken up by clusters of colorful cliffside houses zoomed past as I readjusted my gaze to something that would not induce vertigo. We made this drive through the mountainous region of Costa Rica, home to the Turrialba volcano, in order to visit to another widely respected and well known tropical agronomic research university, CATIE. While CATIE and EARTH Universities both share many common values in terms of their missions for sustainability, responsible management of natural resources, and addressing climate change, CATIE was established far before EARTH. The institution enrolls and hosts students and researchers in graduate and post-graduate studies, and is home to one of the most authoritative tropical agronomic library collections in the world. For this visit, we were taken through a few notable parts of the institution—their world-class germoplasm collection of coffee, the tropical botanical garden, and the sustainable dairy farm.
After what seemed to be endless rain the entire week, the day greeted our arrival at CATIE with some sunshine as we got off the bus and got ready for the first tour—the International Coffee Collection. This collection is considered to be one of the most important coffee germplasm (living genetic resources, such as tissue or seeds, that are usually kept for the purpose of plant breeding, preservation and/or research) collections worldwide. With over 1900 accessions and over 9000 coffee plants living in the collection, CATIE is host to an impressive array of coffee plants which represent about 90% of all known species, cultivars and varieties of my favorite caffeinated fruit.
We walked down the muddy road away from the main entrance of the botanic gardens, led by our tour guide and trained agronomist, Daniel, who works with the team at CATIE to manage the several germplasm collections, including the coffee collection. What proceeded was a 2-hour bilingual crash course that dove straight into understanding coffee’s family tree, the science and the art (read: frustration) of coffee breeding and growing in various climates, and a history of the coffee industry in Costa Rica. We wove through what seemed like an endless maze of coffee plants as Daniel showed us notable parts of the collection—special cultivars, historically significant varieties, experimental hybrids, and the such. The sun was hot, but our curiosity was strong. Did Ethiopia or Yemen have any ownership or rights over their native plants that were taken for the collection from those locations prior to laws regulating and sometimes banning that type of procurement? Why did the natural crossbreeding between two coffee plants of particular families and particular varieties yield a strong hybrid, when the artificial crossing of the same types of parents yield a much weaker one? Why does Costa Rica regulate the types of coffee plants that people can grow in the country?
After soaking in all of the knowledge Daniel had to offer and asking all of the questions that we possibly could about the collection, we headed back down the muddy road to the botanic garden.
We did pretty well for our morning coffee.
A short water break, and the search for shade led us into to a grassy area just outside of the garden wall, where our next guide, Coki, had set up an elaborate table demonstration of tropical fruit that we would encounter along the way. Dressed in head-to-toe quick-dry khaki, Coki enthusiastically goes through the process of familiarizing us with the tropical fruits and even whips out his pocket knife to slice some up for us to taste and smell. Using his 4-inch pocket knife, Coki carefully split open an overripe guava fruit and tore it open to reveal the sickeningly sweet process occurring inside. Passing the sherbet color fruit around, faces ranged between winces of mild digest and smiles of curiosity as the fermenting fruit wriggled with small white worms feasting on the meat inside.
The gustatory and olfactory aspects of our perception are often among the most controversial—they elicit raw, honest, and immediate reactions. Reflecting back on our stroll through the garden with Coki is to look back on a series of divisive flavors and smells punctuated by “aha” moments. Usually our realization was that this ‘exotic’ fruit or seed that we were being shown was part of something familiar to us that we have simply taken for granted or overlooked. My moment of excitement was over the kola nut, the original source of the “cola” in Coca-cola.
After an hour of our garden walk protected by the shade of giant bamboos, tall fruit trees, and the centuries-old ceiba, the good weather abandoned us for rain once again. A few minutes later, we were all sitting, damp and hungry under the closest tent by the CATIE station gatehouse.
A quick lunch break and library tour later led us into a tour of the CATIE dairy farm. Turrialba, where CATIE is located is famous in Costa Rica for producing the country’s best cheese. Alothough we wouldn’t have time to see the cheese makers on this trip, we would get to see some of the cow. In the shadow of 2 volcanoes and the reemergence of sunlight after the midday shower, the mixed breeds of Holstein Jersey, and Brahmas seemed to fit right into the landscape as we parked the bus. The faint smell of manure wafted up as the moist air evaporated in the sun. We trotted through the experimental barns, where calves and cows were separated by life stage and compartments in order to properly manage their feed and track their progress.
When we arrived at the milking barn, the familiar site of a cow manure-powered biodigestor was situated right next to it, ready, for what Coki told us would be ‘full integration’ into the farm itself. These pieces of technology are a staple of sustainability retrofits in agricultural settings around EARTH university and its partners. This one was the first one we have seen functioning properly—the giant plastic cover was inflated into a large bubble, trapping methane gas that could be funneled and used for cooking or to power another process. At this farm, CATIE’s plans to connect the biodigestor to an electric power generator are still on hold after about 4 years of bureaucratic hiccups. Coki explained that in the absence of this equipment, the farm simply burned off the gas. Until it’s product can be harnessed for farm or community use, the biodigestor which runs on farm waste will not be closing any loops.
It was refreshing to see how things were run at this tropical research station and to progress through these distinct, but nonetheless important areas of research for global commodities. Tired, and sleepy from a long day of touring in the heat and humidity, we schlepped back onto the bus and headed back over the mountain towards EARTH. I closed my eyes and dreamed of my next cup of coffee with milk.
Ada Cuadardo-Medina
Master’s Degree Candidate, Food Studies
earthtochatham 