A Day at the Organic Learning Center (CAO) in Honduras

The students from the Organic Learning Center working in the early morning fog

February 6, 2024

Arriving to Honduras

The great thing about studying my Master's degree the Institute of Social Studies with students from around the world is that now I have friends in many places! Traveling to Honduras alone was less intimidating because I had Honduran friends from school who were there to pick me up at the airport and spend the first few days with me. The first thing we did when they picked me up from the airport was eat a famous Honduran food-- baleadas.

My friends Julie and Claudio receiving me in Honduras :)

Arriving to The Organic Learning Center (CAO)

After spending a few days with my friends in the big city of San Pedro Sula, I took a bus to a smaller town where I would volunteer at The Organic Learning Center or el Centro de Aprendizaje Orgánico (CAO) in Spanish. (I will use the Spanish acronym, CAO, which is pronounced like "cow" in English.)

An hour and a half outside of the big city of San Pedro Sula, CAO is located in a small, quiet town called Quimistan. Quimistan has a central park, small stores and restaurants, and surrounding rural, farming communities. However, due to its proximity to the city, San Pedro Sula, more businesses and investment has been coming in. We saw a new coffee shop that sells frappes and a restaurant for chicken wings that everyone seemed to be excited about.

Quimistan, Honduras

From the central park of Quimistan, CAO is a 45 minute walk. Along the way, friendly locals offer you rides in the back of their truck. You almost never have to walk the whole way because someone will always stop to give you a lift. The area is very safe. With all of the bad media attention that Honduras gets for the gangs and criminal activity, I was surprised to see how safe these smaller towns are. We even left the doors of our rooms unlocked when went out.

In contrast to the mostly monoculture production and pastureland that you see on other properties along the road, when you arrive to CAO you see a diversity of trees among the crops. The plantain fields are interspersed with lemon trees, inga trees (known famously as the ice cream tree for it's creamy fruit), neem trees, legumes like canavalia, vetiver plants, etc. This tree and plant diversity is part of an agroforestry system which builds organic content in the soil, retains soil moisture, conserves underground water sources, fixes nitrogen into the soil, and prevents weed growth. These practices are an alternative to the common "conventional" methods often used by local farmers, which require chemical pesticides and fertilizers. The mission of CAO is to be an example to spread more sustainable practices that are healthier for local people and the environment. Therefore, CAO’s focus is “on helping the rural farming poor to live better by going organic.”

At CAO they work with Honduran youth and have 6-10 full-time students on the farm who learn organic practices to become teachers and further spread knowledge of organic farming. They believe that Hondurans teaching Hondurans in a more sustainable method.

“This is a hands-on trade school and NOT an academic school. It is a working farm providing practical training to the rural poor.”

Glen, the owner and director of the project, spends a lot of time teaching us about the mission of the organization. Glen had been involved in agriculture and homesteading throughout his life in Virginia and Texas. Therefore, creating a project like CAO that combines community development with organic farming has been a special endeavor and passion project for him.

Glen talks about how "conventional” methods of farming, which rely on chemical fertilizers and pesticides, are problematic for several reasons:

1. First, there are many cases of birth defects and cancer due to pesticide use on farms in Honduras

2. Second, chemical pesticides are expensive for small-scale producers and can put them into debt.

3. Third, over time these chemical products damage the soil and its microorganisms, harming the local ecosystems.

Therefore, to protect people’s health, to help families save money, and to recover the health of the land, CAO teaches organic practices that use local, organic materials.

February 7, 2024

An Average Day at the Farm

Early at 6 am we convene in the kitchen for our morning coffee. The sound of scraping metal can be heard as the students at CAO sharpened their machetes. We sip coffee as the farm manager, a 28-year old women from Honduras named Evelin, assigns us our morning tasks.

In the morning, the other volunteers and I went to clean the sheep pens. We took out the old grass and transferred it in wheelbarrows to another part of the farm where it is later used as mulch to cover the bases and roots of trees. Because the grass has been inside the sheep pens, it is covered in sheep urine and poop which is great nutrients for the plants and trees.

Taking out the old leftover grass; The students bring in fresh grass; Some happy sheep eating breakfast; Beautiful morning sunrises on the farm

While we took out the old leftover grass from the sheep pens, the students who work at CAO brought loads of fresh Taiwanese grass which we put into the sheep pens. The sheep are hungry and begin to “BAAAAA” until we finally give them their grass, which they happily devour. Then we forage leaves for the sheep and rabbits. They eat a variety of nutritious leaves including Pito, Nacis, and Hierba de Pollo which are planted abundantly throughout the farm.

CAO promotes feeding animals organic materials from a variety of grasses—African, Taiwanese, Cuban, and Clone—and nutritious leaves from different trees including Pito, Hierba de Pollo, Nacis, and Chaya. Very central to CAO’s mission is promoting diversification of plants and trees which they refer to as polyculture. Many rural Honduran families feed their animals corn, but this is food that could be consumed by the family or sold, and it is also more labor-intensive than growing grass. Therefore, CAO promotes feeding farm animals grass and leaves. At CAO, the sheep eat the grass three times a day and are very large and healthy. The owner of CAO, Glen, hopes that this is a good example for others to see that it is not necessary to feed the animals corn and concentrates.

Then we have breakfast together at 8am. After breakfast today, I accompanied Rosi (a female student at CAO) to change the chicken feed. When we open the pen, the hens are eager to escape, but Rosi is fast and she quickly grabs them by the feet and tosses them back into the pen.

The hens have four different types of feed.

1. Decomposed coffee pulp which have grown worms

2. Earth worms cultivated through a process of vermiculture

3. Leaves including Chaya, Moradilla, Leucaena, and a mixture of others

4. Black soldier fly larva- The flies live in metal fixtures hanging at the top of the hen cage. The larva fall down a ramp and the hens eat them.

The hens love the worms! They jump into the feed trough so Rosi just dumps the coffee pulp and dirt right on top of them. We replenished all of their foods except for the soldier flies which reproduce on their own. At CAO they periodically add rotten potatoes and other materials to attract more black soldier flies. In organic farming, the chickens eat a variety of nutritious, natural foods rather than concentrates.

Tasks at CAO vary day to day but a typical day includes taking care of the animals, producing and applying fertilizers, working in the vegetable garden, etc. We will see some more of these tasks in the next posts. Being outside all day, immersed in the tasks and practices of organic farming here has been the best way to learn and understand organic principles. The work can be challenging, and the students are extremely strong, hard workers. Everyone falls asleep quite early to wake up the next day at 5:30 am and start again.

Being here where we start off the day together and work as a group to take care of the sheep first thing in the morning, I feel motivated and even eager to get up early. After a few days, it began to feel really nice to wake up early and be active and outdoors first thing in the morning (after a cup of hot coffee). As we transfer the wheelbarrows of grass from one side of the farm to the other, the sun rises behind the fog and lights up the grass and trees with soft, yellow tones. The dew on the tall grass and the crisp air keep us cool throughout the morning before the heat sets in. Everyone knows what task they need to do, and we set in motion, smiling as we pass one another. I will miss the routine of these mornings!