I love to write about an industry in some far off place that I knew nothing about. So today we get the story of the Costa Rica cow. So slip on your leather jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
Putting the regal portrait of the cow on the stamp did not happen the way I implied in the title of this piece. The stamps celebrated an Agricultural exhibition and our friend the cow had to share the issue with tuna fisherman, coffee pickers, pineapples, and of course bananas.
Todays stamp is issue AP 51, a 1 centimo airmail stamp issued by Costa Rica on July 27th, 1950. It was a 14 stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 60 cents unused. The denomination of 1 centimo seemed low to me for an airmail stamp and boy howdy was it. A centimo is today worth .000018 of a US dollar.
Cattle Ranching in Costa Rica was introduced in Spanish times. It is not an ideal place for ranching as the grasses they graze leave the beef tough and the cows have a low fertility. The place still took off as a center of cattle ranching thanks to America and more precisely the Peace Corps. In the 1960s the director of American aid work pitched to Montana cattle ranchers the benefits of operations in Costa Rica. The land cost of a large ranch in Costa Rica was less than half that of Montana. The real kicker was the annual cost of servicing a cow in the herd was $25 US versus $95 in Montana. The beef would then be deboned and frozen in Costa Rica for export to the USA getting the same price as Montana beef. The beef, almost all from bulls, would be ground into hamburger meat. The problem with low fertility was cured by shooting the cows up with “vitamins”.
Beef is still a big export of Costa Rica and employs 12 percent of the workforce. The cows are however 30% of the countries’ emissions. You thought I was the gasbag. There are also concerns about deforestation in Cost Rica caused by the cattle ranches. Here the government offers a solution. There is a scheme that encourages the ranchers to plant more hedges and if they do the government will sell them a certification of climate neutral beef. The scheme is called the Costa Rica Livestock NAMMA Concept. What a concept that is.
Well my drink is empty but I am left with more respect for the noble cow. He sure has to go through a lot to bring wealth to absentee American landowners in his country. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.