By: Jeannette Guiscardo, Scheiffer School of Journalism
Seldom do we come across a man who would gladly give up all the luxuries in the world for a plant.
It is fascinating to think a TCU master’s graduate has dreams of being a street performer. “It’s a really interesting lifestyle and there’s something about living life day by day that is really, really satisfying,” said Ethan Householder.
Ethan is a recent TCU alumnus with a master’s degree in environmental science. Before his street-performing dream is realized, Ethan continues to seek adventure, mystery and science while living in the Amazon jungle.
Ethan believes that despite swimming with anacondas, being a secret magician and living in the rainforest for a year, the most interesting thing about him are his studies at TCU. “Basically I tromp around in pomp swamps in upper Amazonia looking for species of vanilla,” he said.
It all started when a biologist who specializes in plants came to speak at TCU. After the speech, Ethan approached the botanist and told him “When I grow up, I want to do what you do.” The botanist invited Ethan to his Fort Worth office the next day and asked him a matter-of-fact question, “Do you know what love smells like?” Ethan felt confused and intrigued, and responded, “No sir, I do not.” The botanist opened a bottle of vanilla and told Ethan to smell it. It was love at first sniff.
From that point on, Ethan began to study vanilla in all of its splendor. During his environmental science graduate studies, this 4.0 GPA student decided to focus his thesis on the vanilla orchid.
Thanks to TCU, he got to travel with a group of environmentalist students to the wet tropics of Peru where he was able to study vanilla in its natural habitat for a year. There are two goals that Ethan wishes to realize through the vanilla plant: to influence the academic knowledge of vanilla and to help people realize the true value of conserving vanilla in its natural habitat.
Although vanilla is the most commercial plant in the world that sells for $2,000 a pound of extract, there is no natural history that exists of the genus. Ethan wishes to contribute information about its diversity, dispersal and pollination in its natural habitat. His research will benefit TCU scholastically and influence the environmental science community.
Second, he wishes to demonstrate vanilla’s implications for conservation. In the swamplands, vanilla plants grow like a weed.
“If you could somehow manage these vines and this habitat in order for it to produce vanilla commercially, either locally or internationally, you may provide economic incentive for the conservation of that habitat, which are the wetlands,” Ethan said. Vanilla is also a laborious crop that would provide employment for the locals which is perfect for a country such as Peru.
Studying vanilla may sound uneventful to some, but remember that the swamplands are swarming with snakes, spiders, carnivorous fish, tapers and even wild boars. One of Ethan’s adventures happened when he went with two guides on a three-day trip to study a separate section of the swampland. The three were trapped in the dense swampland and surrounded by man-eating anacondas that are known to grow to up to seven meters, or 23 feet. The men were without food and shelter for three days. With a machete in one hand and a dirt-covered map in the other, Ethan continued to research vanilla plants while simultaneously trying to survive.
The men needed to eat, but they were in “el culo del Diablo” – or “the Devil’s derriere.” They used their fingers to catch carnivorous fish in the water – hoping not to fall in – and used those fish as bait for a bigger catch. During those three days, they chopped down trees to eat the palm of heart, wolfed down the savory meats of a wild pig and a taper. “I was basically a really bad conservationist during those three days,” Ethan said.
This wasn’t the first encounter with nature that Ethan has had. He has had some experience living adventurously when he spent a few months bumming around Costa Rica. He traveled to Costa Rica to study tropical ecology with a community college program for three months. After that, he tried the backpacking experience but did not like it.
“I just realized that going bus to bus with my backpack is very typical. I talked to the people and they all have the same stories, they all meet the same people and they’ve all been to the same place,” he said.
So Ethan got his Lonely Planet Guide, ripped out the maps and threw the rest away. He was on the Atlantic coast and started walking. Unlike most tourists, Ethan survived for the most part on the locals’ hospitality. He met Costa Ricans who offered him food and shelter and asked for nothing in return. These experiences have helped shape Ethan as a person and have allowed him to focus on what is more important to him.
Ethan envisions himself in the future living one of three possible lifestyles. He would either like to be an academic who teaches at a university, a jungle farmer who plants “yucca and banana to his heart’s content,” or a street performer.
TCU is filled with unique, diverse people – the type of people who deserve to have a movie made about them. Ethan Householder may be one of TCUs finest who fits that description.
By: Jeannette Guiscardo, Scheiffer School of Journalism