Pedro Moncayo County Field Trip (November 17-18)

Field trip number 3 of 4 was a bit shorter than the others, but nonetheless it was very informative and gave me some good ideas for my final term paper. We left Quito early on Wednesday and drove north 2 hours to Pedro Moncayo County, where a large percentage of Ecuador’s flower plantations are located. The main flowers that are grown are roses, carnations and chrysanthemums and they are almost entirely exported to the US. Russia, Holland and other European countries also import a small amount. The industry has grown rapidly in the past 30 years and there are now a slew of problems in Pedro Moncayo. Flower companies are using water and land meant for farming, contaminating the air, water and people with dangerous pesticides, treating workers horribly and even altering the culture of the communities in the area.

Our first stop on the trip was a tour of a smaller flower plantation, and we got to see their giant plastic greenhouses, the women working on the de-thorning lines and the cold rooms storing dozens of roses with names like “Forever Young” and “Latin Lady”. The flower plantation that we visited was actually one with “better” practices because they are trying to use fewer pesticides and they reuse the rainwater off of the roofs. All over the area there were much larger companies owned by non-Ecuadoreans and what goes on inside their gates is not open to the public.

Next we visited the small community where our teacher for the trip, Luis, has his weekend house. Luis and others in his community banded together to keep flower companies out of the area and they continue to farm the traditional crops of the Sierra: varieties of corn, potatoes, quinoa, veggies, etc. After lunch we got to see two different organic family farms with lots of different fruits and veggies and many “cuyes” or guinea pigs! Farmers can get $6 per cuy in a market and a BBQ’d cuy can cost $10! Apparently they are very high in protein and mighty tasty, especially the head!! Sadly, we didn’t get to try one…maybe next time! The cuyes are also very important because their excrement is a highly useful fertilizer for all of the food crops. Besides the cuys, the highlight of the afternoon was spent underneath a grass-roofed hut talking with an Ecuadorian woman about her 14 years spent on the plantations and the health problems that she dealt with. Now her and her husband have a productive farm where they produce all of their own food and pesticide-free flowers for the local markets.

On our way back to Luis’ house our minibus got stuck in the mud and we had to walk most of the way back and leave the driver there overnight! The walk was very refreshing and when we returned to Luis’ cute cottage, a traditional Sierra meal and a hot fire were waiting for us. The six of us students enjoyed the night by the fire.

On Thursday we drove by a few volcanoes and the famous market town of Otavalo on our way to the gorgeous Lagunas de Mojanda. We got to hear about the history and social struggles in the area from leaders of a community organization. They are battling to preserve their clean water and promoting reforestation projects in the nearby Indigenous communities.

After another delicious meal at Luis’ house, we stopped by a store for some bizcochos, a typical flaky breadstick that they make in the area. On our way back to Quito we hiked for a bit at the Jerusalem Dry Forest. It was a very neat experience in an environment that I had never really seen before. Returning to Quito, we each went home with 24 bright pink roses that were given to us by the flower company and 4 big lemons from one of the farms. I felt contaminated and didn’t even want to touch the flowers as I was putting them in a vase for my host family to enjoy. Knowing that 80 kinds of chemicals had been sprayed on each petal and the women working on the assembly line pulling the thorns off earned $250 last month made the flowers look a lot less pretty. Needless to say I enjoyed the lemonade much more!