The Costa Rica News (TCRN) – A cattle farm in Costa Rica is the first in the country to receive certification by the NGO, Rainforest Alliance, for its commitment to excellent animal treatment and sustainability in economic, social and environmental factors.
The standards developed by the Sustainable Agriculture Network (SAN) for the Rainforest Alliance seal ensures the conservation of ecosystems and water resources, wildlife protection, suitable conditions for workers, good community relations and integrated crop management.
The good performance of these tasks has led the Tropical Agriculture Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE) to become the first commercial cattle farm in Latin America to receive certification.
For the director of administration and finance from CATIE, Oscar Sanabria, this credential represents a challenge to others to be more “honoring and sustaining.”
“Now we must adjust to more practical elements that allow more and more dairy producers to be incorporated into the standard. For us it also means a challenge because you definitely need to make things better and better,” said Sanabria.
This comprehensive work, which goes beyond milk cows and produce milk, is to prevent attacks on livestock from wild cats, protect natural waterways, conserve trees on the plots and ensure that grazing animals are treated well.
It also means trying to reduce their carbon footprint, which means providing a good diet to cows, which allows better digestion, generating fewer emissions of methane and treating manure waste effectively.
According to Sanabria, per day waste from 135 dairy cows generates between 1 and 1.2 tons of manure which they use as fertilizer, unlike other ranches that release it into the rivers.
The farm also has a generator to produce electricity from manure, allowing savings on bills.
The site also has a set of storage tanks for rainwater, which saves them about $ 6,000 a year.
The Costa Rica News (TCRN)
San Jose, Costa Rica