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The Benefits of Agroforestry
Excerpt from the ACAPRO web site

Organic bananas are more than healthy bananas. They are cultivated in the shade of the natural forest, along with other types of fruits and vegetables in a multi-culture system called agroforestry. Agroforestry prevents further deforestation, by maintaining or restoring natural forest, which also helps to produce oxygen, promotes biodiversity and sequesters carbon. Soil is naturally protected from erosion and nutrients are constantly replenished in the soil by the plants themselves. This system also allows small farmers to diversify their production.

In contrast, most conventional banana growers clear-cut large areas of diverse, tropical rainforest to utilize highly fertile soil. They rarely rotate crops, and continue planting until essential nutrients are stripped from the soil, erosion occurs and production declines, requiring them to cut more natural forests to plant new fields of bananas. As a general rule, they plant row upon row of the same species, which is why this is called monocultural farming.

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Marcos Garcia Talavera Profile
Excerpt from the Cariwood Custom Furniture web site

Conveniently located in Cahuita, Marcos has worked for clients along the Caribbean Coast of Costa Rica since 1987. Utilizing the beautiful hardwoods native to this region, Marcos and his team have crafted countless pieces of custom wood furniture for private residences, restaurants, hotels and cabinas. Doors, windows, cabinetry, beds, tables and chairs are his specialty, but he has experience building a wide array of furniture.

Marcos designs and builds pieces according to client specification or works from client-provided design. Pieces range from simple and affordable to more elaborate according to budget and taste.

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Anne Brigman: California Pictorialist
published in Photo Metro Magazine, March 1996

Isolated from the rest of the world, both physically and psychologically, the Bay Area had acquired an unusual sense of freedom and individuality by the turn of the century. Not unlike the Bay Area of today, international commerce was bustling, good food was plentiful, and artists came in droves. Decades before the Beat Generation would haunt coffee shops and bookstores, the Bay Area of the early 1900's was already world famous for its free-spirited artists and bohemian lifestyles. It operated as the cultural hub of the West and although just recently arrived from the Victorian Age, residents tended to hold progressive, open-minded attitudes. The setting was perfect for a new photographic movement called “pictorialism” and the fostering of a small, but close-knit community of photographers and artists.

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