Ernesto the farmer

For years now, I've been a critic of capitalism, at least as it manifests in our world under the present historical circumstances. One area which constantly fuels my critical standpoint, is how capitalism produces individuals that identify as consumers. That being a consumer is such a great part of all of our lives saddens me. So, in the past, I have said that if you bagged shit, people would buy it.

Alas, a prophet is born. I have recently begun selling my cow manure compost at the local Coop in Monteverde. A 2-3 lb bag goes for a dollar, and I get around 60 cents. The first day of our entrepeneurship, I loaded 4 bags in my back pack, and two in Charlie's (actually Kaia's) dog pack. And of we went, up the mile and so road to the Coop, Charlie focused on his load. Me, smiling at Charlie and Kaia (and, to be honest, at myself too).

Pax, our good friend and manager of the store greeted us happily. He laughed when he saw the small home-made logo paper I included in each bag that reads:

"Abono Natural
Caca 'e Vaca"

"Natural Fertilizer
Cow shit"

Of course the rhyme is lost with the anglophone version, but the charm I trust remains.

After two days on the market, all six initial bags were sold. So this morning, after Kate bought some eggs and butter from the Coop, she sent word from Pax that word on the street was that I produced some mean cow shit fertilizer! Ok, maybe I embellished a bit, but word from Pax was that he wanted more. So today I took 9 more bags, plus 6 plants of mustard leaf, straight from our garden. Pax paid me $10, of which I told him to discount some mango juice (yummy), some awesome cookies (yummy), some nice bread (yum yum) and the newspaper (not yummy, but still good). So, all in all, he gave me $1.25.

So, this is why I titled this post "Ernesto the farmer" and not "Ernesto the venture capitalist".

I have nothing against making money. I would like some more quite frankly (money, that is). But all the money in the world will probably not make me feel as happy as turning mounds of cow shit, adding molasses, and watching it slowly turn into some beautiful soil. Probably.

I like the fact that I am contributing, ever so slightly, to an environment in which people produce and share natural goods. Local production is huge for me. I'll even sell shit to support this process.