I met Don Fernando Pérez Corrales on the first day of our group’s homestay visit in La Argentina, a rural agricultural community near Pocora, Costa Rica. He greeted our group with a jovial, “hola.” Our visit really began once he started showing us how to prepare the animal feed that he uses each day. We all stand around him, watching intently to see what he is going to do and how we might be of assistance in this task. First, he pulls out a plastic tub full of ground corn, throws a heaping scoop of urea into the tub, and pours about a cup of molasses into the mix. Many of us look at the bag the urea came in and read the label trying to determine why a farmer would be using a product that we consider to be a fertilizer for plants as a feed source for his livestock. Don Fernando explains that he uses this product in his supplemental feed mix to improve the beneficial bacteria in the guts of the animals. Our journey to feed the cattle began as soon as he stopped mixing. We passed a small vegetable garden, then walked through the pasture where he lets the chickens roam, passed his two pigs, and entered into a tunnel of tropical trees and foliage. The path is so well defined and full of intentional stops for that allowed Don to point out the ecological use of the plants surrounding us. All the while, I catch glimpses of wooden signs painted with descriptors in Spanish and English. After heading downslope towards the ravine, we cross a bridge, climb a small hill, full of rocks of differing shapes and sizes, and emerge into the sun-lit opening to the pasture. 
The topography of the pasture, uneven and terraced along the hillside, is unlike any other I have ever seen. With a view of the Turrialba volcano in the distance, the view is astonishing. Don shows us how he feeds the cattle and talks to us about the breeds of cows he raises. He explains to me that his twenty cattle are a cross between three breeds: the land race, the Braham, and the Holstein.
Don’s farm tasks begin again the next day when he tells us, “Tenemos que trabajar con las tilapias (We have to work with the fish).” Walking along the pond with a white five-gallon bucket in his hand, the pace of his walk and the manner with which he shuts off the valves of the tilapia pond tell me that this is a routine practice for Don. He demonstrates to us how the tilapia ponds work, continuously pulling water from the waterfall, raising at least 1,000 tilapia, and then the water runs back into the forest and flows towards the river. After the fish are caught, we clean them and talk about what it means to raise tilapia on his farm. According to Don Fernando, he would need to spend an additional 1,000 Costa Rican colones per month in order to produce the tilapia at a rate that would be sufficient for selling to a market. For him, the cost is not worth the benefit of selling them because the market for tilapia isn’t large enough in the area and it really wouldn’t result in enough profit to take that protein source away from the family. The local tilapia market seems to be dominated by larger operations and does not seem to be a viable small-scale farmer like Don. After I asked him about how viable a local business that raises tilapia feed would 
be, he agreed that this would be a more profitable venture.
Later that evening, Dona Lidia, Don’s wife points to a large antique train set in their kitchen. She said, “Don Fernando spent 25 years of his life working on the railroad systems.” Don Fernando wasn’t always a small-scale farmer, and the farm’s agro-tourism began roughly 15 years ago. And his agricultural practices are mostly for self-subsistence, meaning that the food he produces is consumed by his family, and thus he hardly sells what he produces. Being in Don’s presence and watching him work to produce food for his family while giving our group an agri-tourist experience made me think, is self-subsistence agriculture a feasible livelihood for other families in Costa Rica?
Having seen three small-scale, self-subsistence agricultural systems in the communities surrounding EARTH University, we only begin to understand some of the agricultural systems in play in this region. Each small to medium sized farm we visited implemented similar techniques for growing diversified crops, incorporating raised beds as well as a hydro- or aquaponics operation, and raising livestock. Alexis Perez Corrales is Don’s brother-in-law and another farmer part of La Argentina’s community and ecotourist association. Mostly relying on coffee production and agro-tourism as his business, Alexis seems to have a beautiful setup for agricultural production on his 20 hectare plot of land. These experiences truly made me wonder about the important role that agri-tourism has in this community and what other market opportunities need to be available for smallholder farmers in Costa Rica. I hope to continue to study how food systems can be modified to accommodate differing crops and differing farming practices for people working within tropical agriculture.
Gianna Fazioli
Masters of Food Studies Candidate
earthtochatham 