VIDEO: Sustainable Living in Panama

Food supply!  It’s something you probably have not thought much about until the pandemic which has brought food shortages to some areas.   Previously you could go to the grocery store to buy what ever you want when ever you want.  But now, there’s a good chance that at least some of the items on your list are not on the shelves at the grocery store. Some stores are even limiting quantities of things like meat because some meat processing facilities have been shut down.

North America has had some logistics problems to get food from from where it is grown to your local store.   The broccoli or blueberries you eat could have been grown in a foreign country and traveled thousands of miles to get to your grocery store.

These are all good reasons to consider living in a country where an abundance of food is readily available all year.

Lower cost of living and better weather are both good reasons to consider a move to Panama.  But one of the big factors is having access to a variety of food that is grown right here in Panama.  Panama has everything you need to sustain your life.

Panama has fish from two Oceans. If you live in the coastal areas, you can meet the fish mongers where their boats come in.  If you live in the highlands, fish mongers bring fresh fish to your town every day.  Tuna is about $4.50 a pound.  Sea Bass is $1.50 a pound.   A pound of shrimp is $4 – $5.

In the low lands, farmers grow rice, bananas, coconuts, pineapple, mangos, oranges, guanabana, corn and more.  In the highlands farmers grow vegetables like lettuce, carrots, broccoli, zucchini, eggplant, potatoes, pumpkin, corn, berries, coffee and more.   Food can be grown all year in Panama!  Of course, Panama also has dairy farms and they raise chickens and beef.  So, all the things you need to survive  are readily available in Panama at an affordable price too!

Some produce is organic but some that is mass produced is not organic.  It is easy to grow your own organic food.  The most popular plant in Panama is a “jump back” plant.  When you put any plant or a seed in the ground just ‘jump back’ because it starts growing right away.  Every plant is a jump back plant!

The soil is so fertile in Panama and the weather is ideal so it’s easy to grown food all year.   I can tell you that there is nothing more satisfying than walking out to your garden to pick the food that you will eat that day.   See the photo to the right of a recent harvest from my garden.

You can turn your garden in to a money making operation by selling some of your crop.  A friend sells bags of herbs for 70 cents to a veggie stand who in turn sells them for $1.   Other farmers supply restaurants and grocery stores with fresh organic vegetables every day.

Sustainable living is a good reason to relocate to Panama.  And sustainable living was a big factor for Lyn to relocate to Panama.  See her video below.

After a series of life changing events, Lyn moved from California to Costa Rica. But after frequent visits to Panama to study Spanish, she realized that Panama just felt like home. She rented in Panama for more than a year while she was looking for the right property where she could put down roots. In this video, you’ll hear her story and see the amazing finca (farm) she purchased where she grows organic food. Lyn built an adobe house out of natural materials from her farm. Lyn’s farm is near Conception Panama in far western Panama in Chiriqui Province.