Today’s journey through Braulio Carrillo National Park led us into the lush Caribbean lowlands of Costa Rica, where we visited an organic pineapple plantation. The supply chain for pineapples, like coffee, is global and involves lots of farming and harvesting. Pineapples must be harvested when they are still green often to survive shipping and not start the fermentation process too early. On the other hand, coffee must be harvested when the berry is ripe and red for the best quality. Regarding the rest of the supply chain process, coffee has to go through multiple stages to be ready for the shelves. However, pineapples are practically ready for the shelves once picked but have a much shorter shelf life than coffee beans. 

Organic pineapple farming presents unique sustainability challenges and benefits compared to conventional methods. While organic farming avoids synthetic pesticides and fertilizers by using natural alternatives like fish byproducts, animal blood, and chili-garlic sprays, it also results in higher crop loss. On average, over 35% of the pineapple is rejected due to pest damage. Conventional farms can protect crops more efficiently with chemicals, but at a greater environmental cost. 

A threat this plantations faces is contributing to climate change due to their use of plastics and farming. To attempt to mitigate their ecological footprint, they repurpose the plastic ground cover, which is used to prevent erosion and weed growth. They send the plastic to companies that clean it and then turn it into reusable goods like bags and furniture. Another threat to pineapple growth is excess rain, so they created canals between the columns of pineapples so that rain had somewhere to flow into and not flood the plants. Lastly, a major threat to the pineapples are moths and other pests. To mitigate this issue, they created their own natural pesticide involving chili-garlic sprays. This must be sprayed every three days to ensure that the pests are kept away.

Workers on this pineapple plantation, most of whom are Nicaraguan, earn a minimum wage of $30 per day, work 40-hour weeks, and work in intense temperatures and sun. They usually find their own housing near the farm from people that rent around the area. In contrast, coffee plantations in the highlands commonly offer housing, meals, and daycare for the Nicaraguan families who work on their farms. If I was a plantation worker, I would prefer working on a coffee plantation for multiple reasons. To illustrate, the temperatures are generally cooler in the highlands and they would provide all the resources necessary for me and my family to up and move to Costa Rica. It would be more stable, supportive, and less strenuous.