Today I'm sharing with you this article written by Honduras blogger, La Gringa called "Real Cost of Bananas". In fact, I would say that I am more on the, outraged side of feeling. I read La Gringa's blog just about every day and I always learn something. She wrote this article about bananas and now I don't know how I can possibly continue to eat or feed my kids bananas with a clear mind? Ugh! To summarize, the cost of growing and processing bananas is twisted up in political, social, and economic injustices all for the sake of having a yummy yellow banana sliced up in your morning cereal.I took the below photo from La Gringa's blog. She called it "banana+poison" which she got from La Prensa, a Honduran newspaper. Doesn't this lady look nice painting our bananas before they are packaged to land on our grocery store shelves? And why does she need a mask???
Sometimes I have such a hard time wrapping my mind around the issues in Central America. I just can't reason through my questions or concerns. I can't even write about it properly so I will only point to the article written describing the issues at hand.
I don't know what the answer is. I don't even think eating organic bananas would solve the problems. But maybe it's only killing one bird with one stone rather than killing two?
2 comments:
Hi Sprout, I didn't realize that you had made your blog public and I'm so happy to be learning more about you.
This banana/pineapple situation is appalling and there is no easy answer. As North Americans, often the first thing we think to do is boycott the companies, but living here in Honduras, or knowing Honduras as you do, you realize that it isn't that simple.
Where will the people work if they don't work for Chiquita and Dole? How will they feed their families? Of course, these problems are exactly what the big companies count on in order to continue as they always have.
That is so true, Gringa. It is hard to find a balance. You wrote a good article about it and I hope you don't mind me referencing you.
Thanks for the comment and I'm glad you found me!
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