I cannot begin to express how good it feels to be back in Panama with Kalu Yala. I was a Biology Intern in Summer 2011 and during my internship, the company expressed that they were going to be expanding. This expansion included adding an Agriculture Program. I took this opportunity to show the company what I was made of! I put it upon myself to create an Agriculture program from scratch. I spent months writing the business proposal, preparing the budgets and recruiting for the program. I have returned to Panama, bringing four highly qualified, energetic interns down with me.
Alex Goff is a student of tropical Agriculture in Hawaii. Alex has experience working with tropical farming operations, and he is interested in researching to bring shade-grown coffee to The Valley.
Rob Taylor is studying Environmental Science at the University of Lethbridge, in Canada. Rob has countless hours of outdoor experiance in the Canadian Rockies, and now he has set his sights on projects in the Valley. He is planning to create a small scale agro-forest on our farm site.
Kari Remmen will be graduating from the University of North Dakota in May, and will be attending graduate school in the fall. Her project ideas include creating a functional compost for our farm, as well as implementing the use of green manures and cover crops on our farm.
Completing the team is Andrea Davis. Andrea has a permaculture design certificate from Nicaragua, and she will play an integral part in the design of our permaculture garden. She plans to work on community relations from an agricultural perspective. Accruing local knowledge is her main goal.
All together, we form a tightly bonded group with organic agriculture squarely set in our sights. We will be setting down the agricultural infrastructure that is going to be necessary to supply a community with organic agricultural products.
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