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The Environmental Costs of Banana Production in Costa Rica |
17 June 2008
The vision of an environmentally friendly banana industry in Costa Rica is widely publicized by the country’s banana sector. This view is often accepted without question by banana consumers in Europe and the United States, where people do not know the truth, because they are more than 11,000 km away and, in the case of Europe, divided from the region by the sea. It is difficult to counteract this information due to the strength of the Costa Rican image, but the facts are harder to hide when the companies say these things in Costa Rica itself, where thousands of people live in the banana sector.
As Carlos Arguedas Mora, Health and Safety Secretary of COLSIBA
comments, “it seems there is an extreme lack of ethics. This is what we
witness every year in our waters, generally these channels or rivers
leave from a banana or pineapple plantation.” (see photo).
The banana companies say that the water which is used on the plants is
recycled and returned clean to the rivers and 100% of the plastics are
recycled. However in Costa Rica, there are few institutions which can
control the work in the banana plantations.
Carlos goes on to say, “Regrettably when an authority representative
wants to visit a farm, the company often refuses them permission to
enter, alleging that it is private property. If they are granted
permission, they then have to follow administrative procedures which
can last several days. In these days the place is prepared for the
visit and visitors are always in the company of personnel who show them
what they want to see. When there is a certified national or
international audit there is more time and they can prepare the
personnel. Generally there is a meeting with the workers where they
inform them of the audit, they tell them what to say and what not to
say, under the threat that if they say anything contrary then they can
lose their job. The justification for this: that if workers say
anything about what is happening, they jeopardize the sale of the fruit
in the international market. Can one call this harmony with nature?"
“The PR staff of the banana sector deserve congratulations for the
photographic arrangement where a butterfly appears on top of a banana.
In reality and in practice this is impossible. These fruits are
embalmed for weeks with a chemical called “Clorpirifos”, which kills
every insect which goes near it; not even talking about the harm caused
to human beings. It is now time for our country to leave aside the
false speeches. Who are we fooling?”
Source: SITRAP
Click here for more information on the environmental impacts of banana production.
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