The New Green Economy

I arrived on the farm of Australian biology teacher, Martin Couell, in the small Ecuadorian coastal town of Tongorachi. Martin Couell has been living in Ecuador for over 7 years and has been working/living on the farm on and off since 2006. The area is known for being the only area of the country where rainforest meets ocean. Most of the beach-front land is owned by cosmopolitan elites from Quito who have plans to turn the rural town into the next big tourist attraction.

A detriment to that plan is Martin Couell, whose 54 hectares of rainforest is neither cleared for farmland or for the lumber. He spends his days working within the forest, curing seeds of rare fruit trees and palms to later plant deep within the actual jungle. He weeds areas of pineapple patches and recently planted areas. Collecting banana bunches from his pesticide-free natural banana trees seems to be the most regular activity on the unconventional farm.

It took only a night to realize that his entire life (and mine, for a few weeks) is completely organic. As it turned out there is much more to it than I thought. We used fresh rainwater collected off of the thatch roof of his open tree-house style home for drinking water. For washing dishes and cooking, we used water from the creek that cuts through his property. Even the used water from washing dishes was eventually used to water plants.

As far as personal hygiene, it was a shock to see how cleaning the human body (at least with chemical agents) can, in fact, harm natural environments. The rules of the farm would seem strict to most, but after the first few days became almost liberating. Bathing was done in the creek, but without soap of any kind. Washing clothes must be done far away from the creek so as to not contaminate the water with the soapy chemicals. He only brushes his teeth with toothpaste once a week because of his understanding of how harmful it can be to the enviornment and unnecessary for his body to use it more. Admittedly, I used toothpaste once a day, but made sure to change my "spitting" locations so as to minimize the damage.

Martin also has a composting toilet set up which, with enough time, works splendidly. Although the one he currently has does not have compost ready to use, he has made smaller ones that after some three years, produced quite useful compost for his garden. Adjacent to the outhouse is another compost for food scraps and, in all honesty, I've never seen darker, more nutrient rich soil.

What seemed to be the most challenging aspect of life on the farm was the lack of natural produce in the jungle at the time. Although there were many papaya, banana, cacao,coconut, mandarin, orange and lime (54 nut and fruit trees in total) throughout the dense forest, only banana trees were bearing fruit. As you can expect, we ate an obscene amount of bananas. Martin once told me that he was averaging 30 bananas a day about two years ago and that he did that for some 12 months. That means he ate almost 14,000 bananas in one year! Needless to say, his potassium level was probably quite high. Other than the multitude of bananas -- rice, cassava leaves, pumpkin and onions were available for consumption.

We spent a good amount of time chatting about the difference in lifestyles between the tranquil farm and busy populated zones. " You learn as you go along, I think. It takes time to strip away the habits and ideas you have about day to day actions from when you live in developed areas and when you're on the farm," Martin expressed to me in our last days working together. "I do it because I love plants and trees and learning from them. Living this minimally is easy for me now. The only thing I would say I miss is really good bread, but other than that, all I need I have right here with me."

Once my two weeks were up at the farm, I hopped in a truck bed leaving the extreme rural jungle and headed back to the land of showers, mattresses and Internet. Martin made me question my own lifestyle and what is considered so normal back home in the United States. Does living organically mean having to be as extreme as the biology teacher?

Hopefully not.

Even though its not very possible for me to build a composting toilet in my rented apartment, or to go out and collect my own food from the local forests and farmlands, I left the farm knowing a few ways to live a bit more organically.

Water consumption, for example. Just use as little as possible and if there is possibility of reusing water either from a bath or some in the sink, you might as well.

Electricity, especially lighting, is extremely overused. There is no way the porch; living room, kitchen and bedroom lights need to all be on at the same time. Plus, high-energy bills suck.

I left the farm thinking more intensely about where my food comes from. It's incredible how much is imported and under what conditions it makes its way to local grocery stores. All I can say is that researching to know where your eggs, produce, meat, or any other product comes from not only can help us to make more economically and humanely decent decisions, but it might in fact lead to better health.

These ideas are only the tip of the iceberg, and have been known for quite some time. But sometimes, even with the knowledge of better living, it is hard to make it a reality. Knowing that parts of the world outside the United States like Martin Couell's organic farm are so extremely effected by ignorant life choices I know I have made many times in the past adds to the hundreds of reasons for change.