Blog Prompt 7: Trace Food Origin (Bananas)

Bananas these days are Americans favorite fruit, which means they are in very high demand. There is not a supermarket you can go to that does not have bundles of bananas piled up. The question is where are these bananas being produced? Bananas are native to tropical South and Southeast Asia and are now being grown in over 107 countries. Most however, are being harvested in places in Central America. Places such as Costa Rica have large banana plantations with many workers that are working all day to pick bananas in order to ship over to the United States. The conditions of these field workers are hidden from the consumers of this product because they don’t want you to second guess buying their product when at the super market.

In order to get our bananas into stores, workers have to work long days in harsh conditions picking them for very little pay. They sometimes have to risk being exposed to such things as pesticide chemicals that can be very harmful if not wearing the right equipment. These chemicals can potentially be detrimental to the environment and also to the people that have to work around them. Bananas are now being mass produced since the demand for them is raising and this causes the plantation owners to find more cheap labor that will then be exposed to harmful chemicals that can cause diseases such as cancer. The workers in these third world countries already don’t have a lot of money, so they are forced to endure these hard working conditions on these plantations so they are able to feed their families.  

The exploitation of workers and harsh conditions they have to go through in order to get us our bananas goes unseen by our society. It is hidden because the people that are making millions off this industry don’t want you to know what it takes in order to get you this fruit that you demand. This is something that Patel discusses when talking about major corporations hiding the truth from you and trying to keep this information out of your hands so they can go on with business as usual and stay under the radar. 


Another thing I found out was that bananas are artificially ripened in certain rooms full of ethylene gas that helps them to turn from green to yellow. By doing this it can cause people to be exposed to chemicals that can be harmful. I did not know any of this until taking the time to look it up and I think this goes back to Patel’s point about the consumers not knowing anything about the foods that are given to us to eat. Consumers are in the dark on where their favorite foods come from and what has been done in order to get them to you. By understanding the origins of where your foods come from, it helps to bring awareness to consumers of the issues surrounding it.