ECHO-feild trip

                                

Semi arid

Tropical Highlands

Urban Gardening

ECHO was something that I was really looking forward in going to. I love their mission and love how they are taking something so serious such as global hunger and trying to make a difference. I love farms so when I was told that’s where we were going I was very excited. But once we pulled up I knew it wasn’t going to be the exact farm I was use to. Instead of lots of animals and livestock they had plants and trees and vegetables and fruits. Their mission was to see in different climates what food would grow so that they could send the seeds over sea so people that need it could have it and grow food so they could eat it. Some areas that they had were semi arid, hot and humid high lands and tropical forest. They mimic the weather with sprinklers and made the geographic identical to what other people would have to be farming on. So if they were trying to figure out what plants would grow on a hilly area they had a hilly area and tested out the different seeds. Where ever you went you saw something different. From plants, vegetables, tress, fruits, to some animals. They were all there for a purpose. You saw a goat and rabbits and they were a cash crop. You could use their milk, fur, and meat to sell, use and eat. You saw strawberries and cabbage that was used for their families so they could eat. But something that I wasn’t expecting was tires. You would think old tires wouldn’t be useful for anything but boy are you wrong. Old tires can be made for steps going up a hilly area or for urban gardening. Urban gardening is another thing we learned about. It is when people don’t have a lot of space to grow things so they use their roofs or old tires or anything that has space in it. They take old aluminum cans and line them around the old tire in socks and then put the soil and seeds in it. You wouldn’t have thought something like grocery bags or tires could do something but man it does. Then we looked around and they had us sit down and told us about this amazing seed call Maringa seeds. These seeds do wonders for people. For the fact that it gives off more calcium, vitamin a, potassium iron and protein than there competition it can really help people. They told us a story about how all these mothers that were pregnant being very poorly feed. But only a couple of weeks later after eating the leafs these mothers were healthy and so were their babies. It is amazing that something like that can make someone healthy. Not to mention that the Maringa trees are beautiful. They are huge kind of an off white color and their roots are amazing. I learned so much from there and defiantly would love to do volunteering there. They are taking their time and money and really helping out the world a little at a time. On another aspect of what they do at ECHO they try to see what different kind of planting works the best. So they will have different techniques for planting things, to see which one gives more products. ECHO is a place where there is so much to learn that you defiantly have to come back to really grasp what they are doing there. I feel honored that I had the privilege to see what they do and see how people are making a difference.