Today we visited two fruit plantations in Sarapiqui, on the Caribbean side of Costa Rica. The first plantation we visited grows and exports bananas. Costa Rica is now the third largest exporter of bananas in the world, but the fruit was not initially intended to be an export. During the construction of Costa Rica’s railway, bananas were grown as a cheap way to feed the workers. They were only used as an export when coffee was out of season, but with marketing, they became popular. Chiquita is now the main banana corporation in Costa Rica, but they use bad practices which harm the environment.

Despite there being over 1000 varieties of bananas, the bananas that we consume are all of the Cavandish variety. To make them more “a-peel-ing”, the seeds in bananas have been removed, so all banana plants are clones. This makes the extremely susceptible to disease and mold, which makes them difficult to grow without pesticides. The plantation we visited was organic, but this made it so that some of the bunches on less healthy plants were smaller and less full. After the bananas are harvested with a machete, they are hooked onto a wire and the plants are then cut up and used for compost. Additionally, to ensure they are making the most of their land, other plants such as ginger, turmeric, and cassava are planted in between rows of trees. Climate change is currently causing problems for this crop with summers being hotter than usual. This farm is dealing with this through an irrigation plan and a different systemization of crops.

After lunch, we went to the pineapple plantation. Costa Rica is the number one producer of pineapple in the world. Because of this, Costa Rica is also one of the main purchasers of agricultural chemicals, which contradicts its goals for conservation. This is an all organic plantation, so it uses very few chemicals. One of the chemicals that it does use is to force the blooming process. Pineapples bloom into several flowers that then become fruit, so really they are a compound fruit. After 12-14 months, the pineapples are harvested with machetes. The rejection rate for the fruit is fairly low, since the fruits that are imperfect can be made into juice. Additionally, Organic Pineapple Tours hires many rural locals, who may be otherwise excluded from the tourism industry, reinforcing social sustainability.

Because Costa Rica exports many pineapples and bananas, there is a greater emphasis on quantity, contrary to the focus on quality of coffee plantations. If I was to work on a plantation, I would choose a coffee plantation because it seems the least labor intensive and I don’t really want to work around people who have machetes.