The "Real" Cost of Bananas: Crop Dusting and Toxic Fungicides in Costa Rica
by Stephen Brooks, Punta Mona, Costa Rica 
on 07.24.08
Stephen Brooks is the co-founder of Kopali Organics and a correspondent for Planet Green’s G Word.
A common topic when discussing environmental issues is the acronym “NIMBY,” meaning “Not in My Backyard.” This simple phrase refers to the way many people around the world are not overly concerned with many of the environmental problems, because they are just not happening in there own backyards: things like dealing with garbage and our landfills, or the fact that sweatshops that employ children in developing countries that make our favorite shoes do not really effect us in the ways they should because we just do not have to see it or feel the pain that these activities around the world cause. This ignorance creates consumerism and the needless waste continues. This short video is actually filmed very close to my backyard on the southern Caribbean coast of Costa Rica.
It was this very spraying that I witnessed as a plane just like the one you just saw in that video, crop dusted toxic fungicides right over a playground full of indigenous children in 1995 that caused a deep jolt in my consciousness and caused drastic changes in my own life at the young age of just 20 years old. As I witnessed this horrific sight all I could think of was “who in the hell is responsible for this”? It was in that moment that I realized that I had been responsible my entire childhood as I sliced my Chiquitas into my Cinnamon Life cereal every morning, and in that action actually voting for this very evil to be done, not to mention, the toxic chemicals that cause algae blooms in the ocean offshore killing the coral reefs and the blue bags floating in the ocean causing turtles to suffocate, confusing them for jellyfish.
This was my A-ha! moment that helped me to realize my part and my role in way bigger system of which I never realized that I was such an important part of. Everything that goes down environmentally and socially on this beautiful planet is in someone’s backyard and we are all in this together. I would like to say no one wants to cause such harm and destruction in this world and it all comes down to education about what is being done in backyards across the world that is beginning to make all the difference. I applaud Treehugger for being such an important part in helping to bring this education to our computers every morning! Hasta pronto!
Stephen Brooks is a jungle tropical fruit farmer in Costa Rica, the co-founder of Kopali Organics and is the Food Field Reporter on Planet Green's G Word.
Follow @TreeHugger on Twitter & get our headlines with @TH_rss!
Thirsty for more? Check out these related articles:
- The Happiest, Greenest Place on Earth—Seriously!
- Are Your Floors Covered in Pesticides?
- Green Glossary: Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA)
- Green Glossary: Silent Spring
- Get Behind Supreme Court Nominee Sotomayor—60 Green Groups Already Have
- How to Make Your Own Infused Vodka
Can't say that I've ever heard that definition of NIMBY. I've always heard it as an excuse for what is supposed to be a society wide benefit (i.e. final resting place for nuclear waste) but no one in their right mind wants it in their back yard...
I too witnessed some of these horrible things when I was in Costa Rica. I haven't looked at Banana's the same since. I cannot understand how the corporations can get away with these things. It is time for the world to wake up and stop all this destruction and devestation of the earth and her people. We all have a right to clean air, clean water and healthy food. No questions asked. Period.
Thanks for the video Stephen! Your context in what is happening is great too, but seeing it with one's own eyes (like you did years ago) is so powerful. I agree, I applaud treehugger so that this information can be shared, along with you sir!
It's scary how far-removed the average consumer is from the food they eat and the clothes they wear. They're not trying to be insensitive or promote practices that damage the earth or use child labor; people simply don't think about the fact that how they spend their dollars is ultimately a vote for how the product is made. Thanks for reminding us of this!
we all think what can i do? how does my life effect global change, or even my neighbors down the street? many of us feel small and powerless, i think the most important thing to take from stephen's blog is that every person on this planet is a snow flake, unique and beautiful with infinite potential, potential to start an avalanche... thinking about the world beyond your own back yard is the rumble at the top of the mountain, we can either help our brothers and sisters that we share this world with or we can continue to hold them down, forgetting that they want the exact same things we do, as Human says, clean air, clean water, healthy food, and i will add a positive thought provoking creative education and the opportunity to explore our inherent human potential for love and kindness. its sad to say that in the days we are living in, money and consumerism are what we know, yet its the mode to change our ways. our dollars are votes, and our words are powerful, and our actions cause avalanches. we can chose to mindlessly consume or we can educate ourselves, look beyond and take down our fences. people ask me, what can i do? i dont know where to start... i always say, read the label, ask questions, challenge what you are told is the way it supposed to be. eat with the seasons, buy organic, look a stranger in the eye, smile and say hello, take care of your body, know that you are like a snow flake and so is your neighbor and so is the woman working 12 hours a day, scraping by to bring you your skinny jeans....
thank you again stephen for a blog that opens our minds to challenge ourselves....
blessed be.
Great video.....great comments. We vote each day with our dollars and we need to vote wisely.
But wait, that plane wasn't from a Chiquita banana plantation, was it? I ask because all the Chiquita farms in Costa Rica are Rainforest Alliance Certified. Spraying over housing is specifically prohibitied. Chiquita has done a total turnaround in how they grow bananas. Really! (I live in Costa Rica, which is where we started our agriculture certification program.) Big corporations, even those that have a checkered past, can really change. (read more: http://www.rainforest-alliance.org/agriculture) But the reason they change is because consumers demand it. So we banana buyers actually can make a difference. Chiquita sells its bananas in Europe with a Rainforest Alliance Certified seals on them. But they don't use the seal in the USA. Why? They think US consumers don't really care. I wonder if that's true....
don't just by organic.buy FAIR TRADE organic
don't just by organic.buy FAIR TRADE organic
There's an excellent, award-winning film about the banana industry called "Banana Split", by Canadian filmmakers Shebandowan Films:
Banana Split (2002)
Directed by Kelly Saxberg http://www.shebafilms.com/films/banana_split.html
You can also download a couple of great (free) resource guides at the above link - scroll down to the "FOR EDUCATORS" section and click on "Banana Stories" (2003) and "Bananas Unpeeled" (2004) - both also available in french...
great post and video stephan. love your comment viriditas.
stephen, when are you gonna go to bakersfield and pick grapes when it's 110 degrees? people are dying almost every week. it's not only costa rica. there's tragedy all around us.
ps - i'll go with you.
I'm not sure why I am wasting my time even looking at these comments, except to convince myself that you are purely delusional. Wake up Stephen! The earth is bigger than you. Save yourself first. Change the hair. Lose some weight. And quit being such a narcissist. Then even real thinking people might start taking you seriously. Come on you Obama lemmings- even organic isn't good enough for you. It now has to be FAIR TRADE!! I'm going to throw up now.
Comment screener - this really goes for you. You guys are only allowing your own view to get posted. Maybe it's because you don't have the balls to confront any argument?