Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Banana workers

Here are workers in a banana processing plant that is located in the banana fields near the Caribbean coast. The bananas are being floated to an area where they are bagged and boxed for export. It takes only about a week for bananas to go from growing on a tree in Costa Rica to the supermarket shelf in the USA or Canada.

As I mentioned yesterday, the banana industry and Costa Rican government have reached an agreement for the industry to become carbon neutral within four years. They adopted a Banana Industry Action Plan against Climate Change. It will begin with the measurement of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses created by the industry. The industry will then take specific steps to reduce the emissions.

The steps the banana industry will take to fight global warming include reforestation of some lands, using bio-fuels, replacing traditional fertilizers and pesticides with bio-fertilizers and bio-pesticides, using biodegradable plastics, and more.

2 comments:

Dan said...

Just ate one of these delicious fruits! This must be a very big industry in CR.

Sharon said...

This is certainly not how I picture this process at all. I always thought the big long stalks of bananas were shipped in tact and then broken down at their final location. Very interesting.

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