Ever since mankind decided that it is the center of the world, we have distanced ourselves from the other beings that also inhabit our planet. We began to see them as instruments for our welfare or obstacles to our comfort. We forgot that, no matter how small they may be, each being contributes to the balance of life and represents an enormous evolutionary effort by Earth. I’m no exception to this rule.

Born and raised in the city, I’ve developed in these almost thirty years an enormous and irrational fear for small creatures that I can’t see and may bite me. The fear grows if the animal, in addition to be able to bite me, goes “ZZZZZZZZZ”. It’s this fear that I call the fear of bio, fear of other types of lives.

Since I suffer from this fear, the weekend at the farm Flor de Café that grows organic coffee, was a great challenge. Organic agriculture is based on the principle that we live in nature and not from nature. From this principle comes the idea that other living beings – animal or vegetable -, when in equilibrium, actually benefit the crop instead of causing damages to it. For this reason, organic agriculture does not use any kind of pesticides and it has been proven that it increases the organic mass: there’s more life and more forms of life.

This became very clear to us from the moment we arrived at the farm.  As soon as we got out of the car, heading to the room where we were going to sleep, I looked at the ground and saw nothing more, nothing less, than a huuuuuuuge scorpion! Wow, what a scare! We weren’t sure what to do. Brígida, the farm’s owner, tried to disguise her own fear and explained:” When I find a scorpion in the middle of the woods, I let it be, but this close to home, I think it’s better to kill it.” And so Stephan armed himself with my running shoes and sent the scorpion on to its next life.

We left our backpacks in the room and went to the kitchen. While we were chopping onions, grating carrots, we heard a frog croaking. It seemed like it was quite hungry too…but there was not enough food for all of us. Its luck, however, was better than the scorpion’s and was simply asked to leave the kitchen with the sweep of a broom.

The night went by smoothly, probably because a mosquito net protected us. Maybe this is what made me wake up with such a disposition for wilderness. From the farm’s kitchen you can see the mango trees. There are several and they were all loaded with fruit. Since we were preparing breakfast, I offered to go and get some mangos from the trees.

That’s when, while I was enjoying my first harvesting, I saw, more or less by chance, a beehive. It wasn’t big and there weren’t any bees, but the image was enough to leave me terrified. I tried to carry on with my work but the thought of the beehive haunted me and allowed me to pick only 3 mangos. And I must confess that one of them I got from the ground.

After breakfast we went to see one of the water springs in the farm. The notorious place where Brígida heard the creek’s message. We were sitting facing these waters when Brígida mentioned that near some tarantulas and water snakes lived close to where we were.

And there were several other examples such as these. Hornets had built nests in both of the bathrooms in the house. The malagueta tree was home to some yellowish spiders and we could hear “ZZZZZZZ” all around while we were climbing Serra da Tromba.

It was quite interesting that, while we were listening to the waters, we spoke of how humans need to reconnect with Earth and understand that life as a whole, and not just mankind’s, is important. Reflecting over this and acknowledging the great fear that I felt of these ingenious manifestations of life that are small insects and invertebrate creatures, I realized the great contradiction in me: the desire to reconnect with life and the great fear I feel towards it.

I decided that the weekend on the farm would be my first step towards facing the fear of bio. This decision was strongly tested when we went to pick our lunch: manioc, carrots, lettuce, tomatoes, passion fruit and mango. I had imagined this moment like a page in a romance novel: it was the first time in my life that I was harvesting what I was about to eat!

And it was, in fact, a wonderful experience, but not one without challenges. Between Brígida, Stephan and myself, I must confess that I was the most useless. Each “ZZZZZZZ” made me want to go running off. And so I did, when we heard a swarm of bees approaching. Luckily I was fast, because I acted exactly the opposite of what I should have done. In these cases, it is recommended to stand as still as possible.

It is true, though, that despite these comings and goings of invertebrate creatures, I witnessed this weekend the fundamental role that each one plays in the ecosystem. When we killed the scorpion, I thought: “we should remove it from there so as not to attract others.” How naive of me! After half hour, we passed by the same path and the scorpion was no longer there. The ants had already taken it to their nest.

Brígida explained that, in addition to be nature’s cleaners, ants also execute the function of opening holes in the soil, allowing air and water to sink more easily, which are essential ingredients for the survival of several living organisms.

Hornets are great friends of coffee producers in a similar manner. They are predators of caterpillars called “bicho mineiro” (lecucoptera coffeella) that is a coffee pest. On a certain occasion, while all other farmers in the region were having problems with this pest, Brígida’s crop went unharmed. As she doesn’t use pesticides, the hornets were alive and buzzing in her farm, keeping the natural balance and not allowing the pest to spread throughout her plantation.

Spiders and frogs also feed on several insects and are important agents in this balance. According to Brígida, frogs are not very welcome in the kitchen but are essential to the vegetable garden as they feed on guava and mango pests. Spiders can also help to predict the weather. If they are moving around a lot, it’s a sign that rain is on the way.

This is why I think it’s important to face the bio fear and defend these beings lives, respecting limits and acknowledging that there are risks sometimes. In the big city, where food comes from the supermarket, water from the faucet and electricity from the outlet, it’s easy to forget that each of them has a function that is vital to our own lives.

Recently, I heard during a lecture that if all insects died, life on Earth would end in 50 years and if all human beings died, life on Earth would flourish. I hope that if we learn to respect more what these creatures represent in our lives, and not fear them to the point of exterminating millions every day, we can change this prediction! I am trying to do my part!

Serra da Tromba in Piatã, Bahia

I’m writing from Piatã, Bahia. We made a few changes to our plans in order to adjust our schedule to the availability of our guide, João, highly recommended by some of our friends to help us in the hikes  in the national park of the Chapada Diamantina. One of our friends from Belo Horizonte has an aunt that owns an organic coffee farm in the Chapada. We were curious and luckily she agreed to have us over. That’ s how we met Brígida, who’s from Minas Gerais, mother of a very well raised son, about to be a grandmother and an organic coffee farmer.

Talking with Brígida and observing the scenery, we found out that Piatã is part of the “Rio das Contas” region. This region’s development was propelled by the discovery of gold in the 17th century. Gold exploitation went on for about 100 years and was abandoned when the gold reserves came to an end and diamonds were discovered in other areas of the chapada.

Piatã is currently a small town that thrives from agriculture, in particular from growing coffee. This land was responsible for the best coffee in Brazil in 2009. Its mountains, however, are enriched with iron ore and exploitation of this mineral has increased, which may compromise the scenery that left us in awe these days. Several mountains reign over the coffee farms, among them “Serra da Tromba” and “Serra do Santana”. Fortunately, Serra da Tromba has recently been declared an area of relevant ecologic interest.

Coffee from the Fazenda Flor de Café

But in addition to the beauty of this place, we discovered in Brígida the best reason for our trip to Piatã. She has enormous human appeal and our conversations filled our hearts with joy. At first, we thought that the examples we would describe in this website would come mainly from NGOs, companies, projects, etc. During these first five days, however, it has become clear to us that behind great projects and ideas are people, actual human beings with strong motivations to take decisions that are often non traditional.

Brígida is, without a doubt, one of these people. Before coming to Piatã, she worked for 12 years at a major Brazilian extraction company in Salvador, Bahia. She told us that her salary was good enough to allow her to buy a new car every year, pay the tuition of one of Salvador’s best schools for her son, among other comforts.

Many personal reasons and ideals, the search for a better quality of life and environmental awareness made her change her life. She accepted to take part in a voluntary dismissal plan from the company and decided to set up a bed and breakfast (“pousada”) in Piatã.

When we asked her why Piatã, Brígida told us that once, while she still lived in Salvador, she came to the town to celebrate the São João party (traditional Brazilian celebration that happens in June) and fell in love with the town. It’s the highest city in Bahia (around 1,260m of altitude), with a very nice temperature – believe it or not, you can even sleep with a blanket over you!

Brígida’s initial idea was to set up a “pousada”, a sort of small farm, close to the center of Piatã. But there were two great obstacles to this idea. The first was the lack of properties with the features that she wanted. The second was a local resistance to tourist activities. The local residents were afraid that what happened with the native residents of Lençois could happen to them. The tourism boom there was not accompanied by similar qualification of the region’s workers. So qualified labor came from outside the region and the previous residents were left to do manual, less qualified labor.

That’s how, one day, while she was looking for a place for her pousada, a local farmer and coffee grower told her that his farm was on sale and invited her for a visit, no strings attached, to see if she liked it. She reluctantly told him that she was looking for a small plot of land, next to town since she was hoping to open a pousada and needed a place with easy access. Even so, she decided to visit this farm. After all, people in town had spoken of waterfalls inside the property.

The speaking waters of the Fazenda Flor de Café

Brígida was charmed by the place at first sight, but is was the waterfall, which made her stay. When the owner took her there, she felt that she had to swim there. As she had not brought along her bathing suit, she asked the owner to keep away. Alone in that waterfall, she felt nature around her and the waters whispering in her ear: “Your role is to care for the waters of these rivers.”

She had never been much of a mystic, believed in God at best, so she quickly got dressed and left as soon as she could.

When she got back to town, the farmer asked:

- Did you like the property?

- Everything is gorgeous, wonderful, but I’m afraid that I don’t have enough money to pay you. How much are you asking for it?

The price was, in fact, more than she could afford, so she told him:

- Like I said before, I’m looking for a small plot of land close to town, I don’t have all that money.

The farmer asked Brígida:

- And how much do you have?

To which she answered:

- A third of what you’re asking for.

He returned the question:

- In cash?

Brígida:

- Yes, the money’s in the bank.

Farmer:

- Perfect, we’ll go to the notary early tomorrow morning, you pay me and I’ll sign the property over to you.

And that’s how Brígida tripled her equity, like magic. The farmer was also a merchant and needed liquidity at that moment.

After a few months, she opened the pousada, which, in her words, was in fact a hostel. Simple and laid-back, it sought ought to develop a bit of rural tourism in Piatã. She named it “Fazenda Flor de Café” – Coffee Flower Farm.

The locals’ resistance to tourism ended up jeopardizing her activities and she decided to care for the farm. Being a big city person, she wasn’t quite sure how to do it. Brígida took a few courses, learned from her neighbors and, having fallen in love with it, had no greater difficulty in learning how the land worked.

She opted, however, to grow coffee in a different manner than what had been done by the previous owner and went organic. We asked her why she did decide to grow organic coffee. Her answer was fascinating. In the beginning of the 90s, right after the Rio Earth Summit took place, the ecological movement raised the population’s and companies’ awareness to the importance of preserving the environment. At the same time, it became evident that the extraction industry had caused great environmental damages to the Bahia coastline. The companies’ answer was to create projects to recover the area.

As she worked as a librarian at the time, Brígida had access to documents and discussions over this issue. In her own words, she became aware. The company in which she worked carried out activities that could be extremely damaging to our ecosystem and, in order to recover it, many resources and time were needed and often neither were available. Since she had an environmental consciousness, Brígida decided that her production should also be conscious-minded, so the choice for organic coffee came naturally.

Two master theses have already been written based on her farm’s activities. One of them compared the insects on her farm with those that existing in a coffee farm that uses pesticides. The second thesis analyzed the soil’s quality and it’s features. Both theses indicated that organic production is more favorable to life.  Brígida confessed that she felt relieved with the results, as she had felt a chill to her stomach when she allowed these studies: “what if the results show that what I’m doing is not making a difference?”.

We asked her about the organic certification process and its difficulties. She explained us that the joint actions by several coffee farmers from the region ended up making the whole process simpler and cheaper than initially imagined. Cooperation with other farmers and residents from the region also proved to be critical for other conquests. Working together, they were able to obtain solar energy for the farms in the region and through a cooperative that they set up, organic coffee production is promoted and made viable.

Brígida warns us that life on the farm is no bed of roses. “Sometimes I miss cultural activities and intellectual stimuli.” This feeling has shrunk since Brígida entered into the WWOOF program (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms) two years ago. Volunteers from all over the world come to the farm for at least a month to help her out with the chores, in exchange for food, board, paradise-like scenery and great conversations. As for cultural activities, one of Brígida’s greatest passions, the movies, has become platonic since there are no movie theaters in the Chapada Diamantina region.

Another challenge is the fact that the coffee business does not always do well and when this happens she has to seek out other activities. Her academic background and previous experiences allow her to carry out several different jobs in the town outside of the farm. School teacher, project coordinator at an NGO, among others…

Guardian of the waters

After 12 years in this cycle, Brígida has come to realize that the time and energy spent on other activities are also beneficial to business development and improvement of organic coffee farming. The 12 years are no coincidence. Her life does in fact seem to revolve around 12 year cycles: 12 years working in Salvador, 12 years in Piatã and now the beginning of the disembodiment of her dream of developing a sustainable plantation, by setting up a foundation.

Her goal with the foundation is to develop scientific activities in order to support, develop and spread new agricultural-ecological techniques. This way, she’s keeping alive her mission as guardian of the waters, because in order to protect the rivers, she has understood that she must keep all the ecosystem around it alive and in harmony. Since Brígida arrived at the farm not only do the waters that already existed continue to be alive, but new springs have appeared!

“Fazenda Flor do Café” grows more than coffee: its orchard has mangoes, passion fruit and other native fruits such as “carambola” and “jaca”, manioc (cassava), peppers, potatoes, sweet potatoes, bananas, lettuce, tomatoes, etc., etc., etc. While we talked, we taste an improvised couscous with several ingredients from the farm and a slight German touch. And during dinner, we were delighted not only with the food but also with the joy of rediscovering the pleasure of eating things directly from the ground.

To seal this night of such intense learning, we drank some of the farm’s coffee: it was delicious, with a soft aroma and naturally sweet… It was the first time that we drank coffee picked and ground on the spot…what a thrill!