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!
