Today, I had the best pineapple I have ever tasted. I honestly don’t think I could ever go back to eating store bought pineapple. I need it freshly picked all the time. What I didn’t realize, however, was how much work it took to get that pineapple to where it was.
We also had the cool experience of making our own fried plantains, which we ate with lunch. Delicious! I am so happy I got to learn how to make them, because I was actually wondering how it was done.
When we visited the plantain and pineapple farms, our tour guides addressed some problems that occur. It is not an easy job, being an organic, sustainable farmer and trying to compete with other, larger companies.
Bananas can be produced all year round, and like humidity and water, which is why they are grown in this specific part of the country, The problem, however, with using one type of banana which is separated from the mother plant, is that it is susceptible to disease because the lack of genetic diversity. To get rid of these diseases, farmers can apply chemicals, but if you are an organic farm like the one we went to today, you can not do that. What the woman from today do is try to apply bacteria and fungus to help fight disease, but it is still very hard to manage. Another problem banana farmers face is animals getting into the roots of the plants, which stops them from being able to absorb the proper nutrients for growing. These bananas that are not good enough turn to compost or fertilizer, which is a sustainable way of not wasting any crops.
Lets talk about pineapple farming. I would never want to be in charge of growing these things, it seems so complicated! First things first, you need to induce pineapple growth itself by putting ethylene gas on them, and keep them happy so they do not grow pineapples on their own. You make them listen to you. Organic pineapple farms deal with many insects on their plants, and can’t do much about it because they do not use insecticides or pesticides. So if the pineapple gets sick, they control it with microorganisms found in the jungle. A good thing they do, however, is give the plants that are not good enough to the farmers and their families so that no food is wasted. The farm we visited also stated doing tours to make some extra money and let people know the long process that it takes. I will say, the tour was amazing and we were interested the entire time! I give these guys a lot of credit for their job.
It seems that compared to coffee and bananas, pineapple are much more difficult to grow. But all three require intensive care, when it comes to being handpicked, handled, and making sure the final product is perfect for consumers. I would probably choose to be a banana farmer out of the three because I had fun cutting down the tree with that machete. That is the single reason.