Finding Opportunities Beyond
the Status Quo

There are opportunities beyond the status quo, but it takes some guts to pursue them.

Artlinda Pascual lives just outside of La Paz, Bolivia. She grows lettuce and other vegetables, and she’s helped 80 other farmers get up and running, thereby bringing economic transformation to her village.

For years, her open-air farm on a Bolivian hillside produced more than 1,800 heads of lettuce during two producing seasons a year – status quo. Plus, her crops depended on chemicals to assist in their growth. She was no different than any other farmer in La Paz. They all did it the same way.

But Artlinda wasn’t satisfied with the status quo. She wanted organic crops – free of chemicals – and she wanted to produce more. So Artlinda began reaching out to organizations such as Heifer International to learn new methods for productive farming. Heifer and other organizations exposed her to a few ideas that no one had implemented in the La Paz region before – ideas about micro-climate farming.

By harnessing solar energy, Artlinda learned she could create a micro-climate that allowed her to produce year round – not just during the summer months – four crop yields per year, not two. The micro-climate also would help her crops remain healthy with less dependence on chemicals. But making such a change would take a lot of work. She would have to start from scratch. In fact, she would first have to construct a tent that harnessed solar energy.

No other farmer in this region had heard of micro-climate farming. But Artlinda did her homework and decided to jump on this idea with both feet. Within a year, she was doubling her production and her crops were completely independent of chemicals. Now 80 other farmers are following Artlinda’s lead and experiencing the same results.

Thank God for those status quo breakers – the ones with the courage to drive progress.

Where do you need to bust the status quo? Like Artlinda, do you have the courage to pursue new and smart, but maybe unproven, opportunities? I hope so. Progress is depending on it.

Tags: America, anywhere, farming, Heifer, Leader, micro-climate, South, SouthAmerica