Pineapple Express in Costa Rica, mae

Costa Rica is a country full of unusual and surprising facts – a place where traditional ice-cream flavours are flouted in favour of green mango, peanut, wild blackberry and even sour cream; where babies and young children are encouraged to drink coffee; where McDonald’s and Burger King will satisfy your every fast-food desire and offer home delivery; and a place which claims more than 5% of the world’s biodiversity.

In the past, it was principally known for coffee and bananas, but pineapples have recently surpassed coffee as the number two agricultural export. Here’s the story of a pineapple boom predicated on environmental degradation and exploitation of workers. It’s another good example of how global food corporations fail to respect human rights, public health and the environment in their supply chains: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/video/2010/oct/01/pineapple-trade-costa-rica 

The biggest plantations of pineapples in Costa Rica cover an almost unimaginable expanse, equivalent to more than 1,800 football pitches. Monocultures of pineapples on this scale are a honey-pot for pests and diseases and so the fruits have to be grown with substantial inputs of pesticides, either applied by knapsack sprayers on the backs of workers, or dispensed by long-armed truck sprayers. This has unsurprisingly led to a number of health problems: respiratory diseases, asthma, babies born with defects, spontaneous abortion and male sterility are higher in the pineapple zone than anywhere in Costa Rica.