Today’s Animal World: Our Co-Inhabitants will be presented in Spanish, with subtitles in Arabic, Aulacese (Vietnamese), Chinese, English, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Mongolian, Persian, Portuguese, , Russian, Spanish and Thai.

Halo, good friends and welcome to our program. Organic supermarkets are proliferating in Costa Rica and around the world. This growth is occurring in response to the high public interest in organic products, due to a new consciousness that links the health of the body with that of the planet.

To supply such markets, more and more farmers are growing organic crops. To learn about these farmers and the organic farming process we’ll examine in a two-part series the cultivation of the sweet potato in Costa Rica.

This vegetable is a marvel of nature that reflects the richness of Earth’s bounty. Did you know that the sweet potato was first grown in Central America and then spread throughout the world mainly in the 17th and 18th centuries? Corn, tomatoes, and potatoes have been the Americas’ main contributions to the global diet.

Sweet potatoes are tubers that are rich in nutrients and are a wonderful food for all ages. They are ideal for babies beginning to consume vegetables. They have a sweet, smooth flavor that makes them beloved by infants, but they are also easily digested and thus prepare little ones for more complex foods.

The sweet potato has many vitamins, because of the color it has. This color, a color close to orange, that is a very valuable thing, because the vegetables or fruits we eat, the more orange color they have, the more rich they are in the vitamins that we need, because nowadays there is a big problem with blood sugar and diabetes in the world and that is due to a lack of carotene.

Let’s now meet María Eugenia and Eliecer Rodríguez. The farming couple enjoys growing organic sweet potatoes and other splendid organic produce.

When you cultivate the sweet potato, what do you feel? Do you feel that you’re collaborating with the environment?

Yes, that’s what we feel with all the crops, because for several years we have been taking care of the land. We do a lot of things to avoid the erosion of the soil and also make many compost walls in order to merge the organic material into the soil.

How did you start with organic crops?

It was because in 1994 a Japanese man came to present organic agriculture nationwide, sort of a pilot program. And then I belong to an organization of women and we looked for the Japanese man so he would teach us how to do bokashi, (organic fertilizer), compost and foliar and all that. And that was when my husband got interested.

He used to cultivate in the traditional way. He used to do the entire process with chemicals and when he noticed that the organic agriculture did work, he decided to change to this system, because he said that he was already worried about picking up cabbage full of chemicals and toxic things, with toxic substances and taking that to the family. So he started to change the way he cultivated towards organic agriculture.

We had been having problems already using chemical products. By then, I had had a sort of toxic reaction or more like a strong toxic reaction. That made me think that I had to change to another type of agriculture, meaning not using chemical products. In those days, I´m talking around the years 1995-1996, I started to hear about organic agriculture.

Organic farming, in order to be considered as such, requires following a series of specific rules, the first and foremost of which is to avoid the use of herbicides, insecticides and artificial fertilizers. An organic crop is one that is planted in soil that is enriched with organic materials. Flowers, weeds and insects in the field are considered the allies of humans. Thus, organic farming is a sustainable, environmentally-friendly process that reflects compassion for all sentient beings.

Ms. María Eugenia, I see that here in the middle of the cabbage crops, and the sweet potato crops there are a lot flowers. Why is that?

The first Sunday of each month we have a fair, and we are visited by a lot of people, so the people come to see the plants. And those flowers, especially women, we like them a lot, but also the flowers have many functions. For example, they help with pollination, because many insects arrive and go from here to the crops, and also the insects are distracted by the flowers and do not eat the crops.

At the same time one changes from chemicals to sustainable, organic agriculture and also changes many ways of thinking to the view that the soil is always part of the existence of human beings and it is not for us to exploit for a while and nothing else. And then, one starts to love the Earth, starts to love the insects, starts to love everything around us, which is the most important thing in this type of agriculture.

If one as a farmer in the past thought: well, we are guilty because we cut the wood, burned the soil so much, we did not protect the soil, I mean, we had little concern for whether the water was eroding the soil away, and nowadays we are trying to do the exact opposite.

Let’s now cover the beginning stages of how sweet potatoes are grown.

Every form of agriculture, all agriculture depends on good soil. It does not depend on how many chemicals I put into it or how much I spray it or how many fungicides I have put in. But instead it depends on good soil in order to counteract many of the diseases.

For example, with the sweet potato, let´s say, before we sow it, what we do is incorporate a lot of organic material. Why? Because the organic material is what gives... it’s the life of the soil. Soil without organic material is dead soil.

This is the tip of the sweet potato stalk and this is what you sow. Even though the sweet potato is this long, the stalk is not necessary. What you use is this tip; I put it here right next to my finger and I just stick it into the ground.

Straight into the soil.

That is it; that is the system for sowing sweet potatoes.

It is manual; it is not mechanized.

No, it is manual, that´s it and it stays there. This is the system used for the sweet potato.

One thing about the sweet potato is the plant itself. You see them like this, but when they grow and extend a lot, the tips start growing longer; then you cover the tips. You cover them with soil in order to keep them from growing too much and that action causes them to produce tubers.

And in organic agriculture, no bad weeds exist; every weed, each one has a role in the soil and especially they produce compost. Because when there are weeds among the crops, whether there are insects or not, the aphids or any other insect that is in the soil who also affect the roots, will have other roots to eat and will not affect the crop alone if the area is clean.

And also when we take away “bad” weeds as people call them, these are not bad weeds because it will become compost for the soil. The more “bad” weeds like this we have, the better the soil will be, because we are going to feed the microorganisms that live in the ground, and we will have them protected, because an uncovered soil, an unprotected soil is like a desert.

The Sun will hit it and therefore there will be no life, because it is burning. Every microorganism that is above, on top of the ground is going to die. But if there is a place where they can live or something to protect them, those microorganisms will live longer and they will make this process much faster.

That is really interesting!

Producing organic crops involves much more than just environmentally-friendly planting and cultivation. The process is also one in which farmers awaken a consciousness that goes beyond environmental protection. All organic farmers come to realize that humankind is part of a whole. Soil, plants, climate, animals, insects and human beings all form a marvelous and harmoniously balanced entity wherein each object and sentient being has a place and role, and that when all are respected, abundance, beauty and well-being are the result.

The sweet potato is also very delicious, because my companion here says that from the soup his mom used to make for him, he would only eat the sweet potatoes, because they are sweet. Yes, actually it is very nutritious. You can give it to kids to start teaching them how to eat, because it is a tuber that is not going to harm them, and since it is sweet, they like the flavor.

But besides that, with the sweet potato, many experiments have been done; here in Grecia a few boys from the university invented several things with the sweet potato. They even made a sweet potato punch and it is delicious. They did it, and we now have access to the recipe, but we can also use it as part of the vegetables in the soup. You can make them mashed, you can do it fried, well, in many ways, and yes, it is very tasty and very healthy to eat sweet potatoes.

The sweet potato, with its simple cultivation requirements, flavor, great nutritional value and versatility produces tranquility and happiness in those that grow it and consume it.

Please join us tomorrow for the second part of our program where we’ll see how the sweet potato is used in a wide variety of dishes, including salads, appetizers, casseroles, fricassees, baby foods, and desserts.

Finally, our appreciation María Eugenia, Eliecer Rodríguez, and Juan Luis Salas, for setting a wonderful example on how to treat the Earth gently by practicing organic farming and introducing us to the delightful crop that is the sweet potato.

Thank you for your company on today’s program. Coming up next is Enlightening Entertainment, following Noteworthy News. May you be blessed with fruitful harvests, bringing abundant joy and fulfillment to all those around you.