Getting underway, at long last

As of yesterday, I´m officially making headway in my project - to investigate the agricultural systems of San Ramon. My specific interest is in the production of basic grains; to understand how people here assure their food sovereignty. In the States, the idea of food sovereignty is considered hopelessly obsolete or not considered at all.

In a small nation like Nicaragua, though, to be in control of your own food sources is a strong gesture of independence. Unfortunately, the trend right now in these same countries is to abandon traditional small-scale agriculture (the domestic producers of the nation´s basic foods, overwhelmingly) for the promised high returns of cash crops - in the case of Nicaragua, cotton, coffee, sugar, beef. Then these nations spend much of the revenue on importing the same foods they could have produced themselves.

But it´s hard to explain that to young farmers here. Partly because my Spanish skills aren´t adequate, partly because people here know there´s much more money to be made in other crops - and one can always buy their food instead. I suppose the problems only really seem so grave when one looks down at the whole, global picture. As a college student in the USA, we spend most our time doing that...granted, with all the abstractions that keep real consequences at arm´s length.

So that´s where I was yesterday. Specifically, sitting on a steep hillside of maize, overlooking a stunning vista of the cordillera, of the cluster of roofs marking San Ramon, patchwork corn-and-bean fields everywhere with jungle in between. There was one of those rare, cool breezes brushing the corn plants as Mario (my homestay brother) talked with me for an hour about...well, everything. How he preserves his soil, controls weeds, rotates crops, all of it. And he offered to let me help in the harvest next month, which I´m really excited about.

Up on that hill, I´m happy to say much of my uncertainty about why I came here...dissipated. Talking about growing food; well, that´s my element. Right where I want to be.