Eight-year-old Jimbal waits excitedly behind a banana plant in his fat brown monkey suit. In a few minutes he will have his performance. To the applause of the spectators, he jumps onto the open-air stage and, hopping around wildly, shows how comfortable a monkey can feel in his banana plantation today. Jimbal is one of ten amateur actors from the Nogal Environmental Project in the Sarapiqui area of Costa Rica. There, where years ago the most aggressive banana cultivation with harmful pesticides was practiced, the cheerful little group presents their new working conditions in the plantation, told in a one-hour play.
Humane work
Up until the 1990s, large corporations such as Chiquita grew bananas here – with no regard for the environment or people. Airplanes sprayed highly toxic pesticides on the plantations several times a day. Barrels of blue plastic sacks soaked in pesticide , which are pulled over the banana trees to ward off the Sikatoka fungus, lined the plantations and packing stations. The health of the harvest workers, their working conditions and environmental protection were not an issue.
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At a glance
- Organic: No use of pesticides and other toxins. Use of extremely robust plant material. The destruction of pests and weeds is carried out by intensive manual work.
- Biofair: Protects the environment and people according to organic guidelines, secures income as with Fairtrade. Example: banana fair.
- Fairtrade: Fixed minimum prices for bananas that cover production and living costs and thus support small farmers and cooperatives. No organic, but strong promotion towards organic cultivation.
- Certified: Sustainable agriculture, focus on ecosystem preservation. Highly controlled use of pesticides. Participation of the producers. Prices follow world market prices.
Life here now looks very different: Pesticides have been reduced to a minimum. Chiquita workers wear masks and gloves when handling the bags of pesticides. All plastic waste is recycled without exception. The plantations are lined with tall hedges to keep chemicals from being blown into surrounding housing developments. These changes can be attributed to unrelenting pressure from trade unions, citizens’ groups and above all the American non-governmental organization (NGO) Rainforest Alliance. In 1992, Chiquita Brands International, formerly United Fruit Company, began to change its production to be environmentally friendly and humane. “It’s been a long road,” says David McLaughlin, Chiquita’s chief of environmental affairs. He had intensive discussions with Chris Wille, Director of Sustainable Agriculture at the Rainforest Alliance.
Green frog on the label
The group, which was notorious as a “sweeping company” and “stooge of the CIA”, the top US intelligence agency, has become a company that is committed to protecting the environment. All 127 Chiquita plantations in Latin America are certified, and 80 percent of the supplier companies worldwide meet the certification standards. In nine European countries, Chiquita bananas not only have the well-known blue logo with the Chiquita girl, but also one with a green frog. “Since certification, the farms have been perfectly organized,” says McLaughlin. From 1995 to 2004, costs fell 18 percent and productivity rose 28 percent. Not least because of the better work ethic. People feel respected.
No pesticides in organic cultivation
Treating people and the environment as respectfully as possible, which Chiquita has developed over many years of work, has been a matter of course for organic associations and “fair trade” from the very beginning. Another major difference: No pesticides may be used in organic farming. There, the healthy, very resilient plants are grown in mixed cultures. Plantation workers remove diseased plants or plants that are too dense every day, and use machetes to cut off banana leaves that have been infected by fungi. This effort and the overall lower yields justify the usually even higher prices of organic bananas. But one thing applies to all bananas: They are harvested green before transport. And: Thanks to the peel, the fruit contains only a barely measurable amount of pesticides – organic cultivation therefore primarily protects the plantation workers and the environment.
Bananas with the “Fairtrade” seal guarantee small farmers fixed prices that are higher than the world market level. In any case, they should cover the production and living costs. All “Fairtrade” producers fundamentally meet the national and international requirements with regard to pesticides and environmental protection. An incentive for many small farmers: Farmers who convert their plantations to organic cultivation receive an additional premium. Chiquita is also cautiously putting out feelers in a holistic ecological direction.
There is already a project for organic bananas in Nicaragua: the weather there is so dry that the Sikatoka mushroom doesn’t stand a chance. And: Chiquita is running a multi-year program in Costa Rica together with the German Society for Technical Cooperation and the major Swiss customer Migros. This includes reforestation, environmental education in schools and involvement in social projects in the communities. One who is enthusiastically benefiting from this is the little theater monkey Jimbal. It would be his greatest happiness if monkeys would feel at home again in all banana plantations one day.
