Industrial agriculture The primary aspect of large-scale or plantation agriculture is to produce very large quantities of agricultural goods. This type of agriculture facilitates
economies of scale. The more goods produced at such rapid rates, the less expensive the companies have to sell their products for, making them leaders in the world market. For the most part, plantations in Costa Rica are
monocultures. These plantations (e.g.
Dole,
Del Monte,
Chiquita) primarily grow bananas, pineapples, sugar, coffee, and ornamental plants. Many crops cultivated through plantation farming are usually
genetically modified to improve and hasten growth and increase resistance to pests and diseases. This type of agriculture requires altering and changing much of the landscape. Large sectors of forest are demolished to make way for huge high-yield corporate agricultural fields, which has a major influence on surrounding ecosystems. Many of the methods practiced within these monocultures cause considerable effects on surrounding
biodiversity and human communities. These agricultural fields are one of the primary causes of
deforestation in Costa Rica. The clearing of forests makes more land open for plantations to harvest mass quantities of crops. Many plants, insects, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammal populations are drastically declining. As a result of the heavy use of
pesticides used in plantation farming and many domestic flora and fauna are dying off, while some pests, such as the very venomous Fer de lance snake are rapidly multiplying. This is due to the fact that because so much land is cleared the snake species can capture its prey with much more ease, as there is less to hide behind. This along with deforestation then affects the country's biodiversity, which (for a country that is about the size of
West Virginia) accounts for 5% of the world's biodiversity. With such large areas of land to farm, this method of primarily monoculture farming requires the use of heavy machinery. This type of farming is also the cause of much of the country's
greenhouse gas emissions. But what makes Costa Rica's
food system really unsustainable is the globalized commodity trade that has resulted in the integration of the
food supply chain and its concentration in only a few transnational corporations. This greatly increases the
carbon footprint and
energy intensity of the food consumption, and at tremendous social and other environmental costs. Numerous studies have been implemented globally to determine the effects of various farming methods. Studies have reported that the energy use in conventional farming systems is 200 percent higher than that of more sustainable systems. Research showed that while
organic farming typically uses more machine hours than conventional farming, total energy consumption was still a great deal higher in conventional systems because, aside from machine use on the actual farm, energy is used in the production of pesticides and other inorganic farming products.
Effects on surrounding human communities Conventional agriculture has put pressure on indigenous customs and traditions. The use of pesticides in Costa Rican agricultural fields has nearly doubled over the past two decades. Currently Costa Rica ranks first in world pesticide use. Plantation agriculture was a significant contributor to the runoff and other environmental effects caused by the pesticides because over a third of these
agrochemicals are used on banana and
plantain production. The use of intensive agrochemicals on large plantations make cash crop production to be the most harmful to the surrounding area. Indigenous tribes lack legislation that would limit agrochemicals, so much of the
runoff affects the rivers used by the
Bribri and other indigenous tribes inhabiting Costa Rica.
Effects on biodiversity Costa Rica's
rainforests house 5% of the world's biodiversity and 26% of them are protected in some way. The advent of genetically modified organisms has become an enormous industry because of the fragile nature of monoculture
agribusiness of the United States and conventional plantations the Europeans introduced to Costa Rica. When hundreds of acres are deforested and covered with only one type of one plant, the farmer has elevated the potential for
blights,
insect infestations, and other disturbances to be disastrous. Nature knows that a diverse community of species not only act as biological controls for each other, but also stabilize the entire area because only some species will be affected by disturbances. Plantation agriculture taken the homes of many biota causing a huge shift in
species diversity. One of the most venomous snakes in Costa Rica, the fer de lance, has actually benefited from this type of agriculture. As land is cleared for agro fields, their prey has fewer places to hide, causing a substantial ease in their hunt. Before plantations began to deforesting, fer de lance survival rate was only about 2%. Today, with increasing rates of deforestation and plantation agriculture their survival rate is somewhere between 60 and 70%.
Permaculture or sustainable farming Smaller-scale,
sustainable agricultural methods are becoming increasingly popular throughout Costa Rica. With the country's declaration to become the first
carbon-neutral country by 2021, this is their first step in attaining such a goal.
Crop rotation is one of the practices executed by sustainable farmers in Costa Rica. Since many plants are planted together, one major benefit of crop rotation is that each crop has a different harvesting period providing food and income year-round. This method also reduces soil erosion, a major environmental issue in Costa Rica. Instead of using chemicals to prevent pests many of these farmers harvest plants such as
lemongrass and
citrosa, natural pest repellents. The use of crop rotation, and seasonally changing crops also deters pests that feed on particular individual types crops since that crop is only around for a short period of time. Companion planting is another method employed by sustainable farmers in Costa Rica. For example, planting
mint around vegetables helps deter many pests as the aroma is unappealing to them. Planting
rue helps in deterring the
Japanese beetle, a major agricultural pest. A newer technology method that sustainable farmers in Costa Rica are beginning to employ is the use of plug-flow anaerobic digesters. These machines are "long, narrow, insulated, and heated tanks made of reinforced concrete, steel or fiberglass with a gas tight cover to capture the
biogas. It is loaded with thick manure of 20-30 percent total solids. When the manure reaches the outlet it discharges over an outlet weir arranged to maintain a gas tight atmosphere but still allow the
effluent to flow out. Biogas produced by the digester is used to heat the digester to the desired temperature. Excess biogas can be used to run an engine generator. Heat can also be recovered from the engine generator and used for space or floor heating, water heating or steam production to offset the cost of purchased
electricity,
propane,
natural gas or
gas oil used on the farm for daily operations". Leftover manure is then mixed with soil and added to the cropland. Around 18 percent of all greenhouse gas admissions can be attributed to
animal agriculture today, therefore employing plug-flow digesters is another step Costa Rican sustainable farmers are taking to reduce greenhouse gas admissions. With more sustainable farming methods employed in Costa Rica, less energy is generally required from the farmer because the agriculture system sustains itself. ==Subsistence farming==