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Jamie's Central and South American Adventures
The town of Cariari, as well as San Jose, has made me think a little differently about the world. These are all things I think I knew, but didn't think to know. Did that make sense? read on, it just might. Cariari is the main town that supports the people who work at the banana and pineapple plantations owned by Dole, Del Monte and Chiquita. The housing is a series of planned communities with a school, a church and a pulperia, or local crocery store. Unless you are lucky enough to own the pulperia or work in town, you work in the banana plantations. These people work very hard for little pay. The work is hazardous, both woth machinery and pesticide use. I also didn't realize how wasteful the banana industry is. If the bananas are not 100% perfect for sale, they get thrown out. I saw huge piles of what appeared to be perfectly good bananas laying next to the truck meant for compost and garbage. Then small boxes of bananas being placed on a truck for shipment. Someone said that 60% of all bananas get thrown away because of high consumer standards. The banana plantations take up tons of space, too, as do the pineapple plantations! Nothing can live there. I have occaisionally see birds on the electric wires along the road from La Suerte to Cariari, but only one or two species, not the hundred or so I've seen outside my cabin window. As we were driving thru the pineapple plantation towards la Suerte on the first day, Michelle, my instructor, told us that the last time she was here about a year ago, that whole area had been primary forest with birds, reptiles, frogs, and monkeys. Let's just say the van was a little quieter after that.
People. Wildlife. Nature. Consumer demand. Multinational corporations. These words have surrounded some of our lecture and dinner discussions. It's interesting spending time with people who share my views, but I worry about the rest of the United States. I'm sorry, I don't think I can call it America anymore, because there's a lot more of ¨America¨ that we tend to forget about. When I get home I'm going to make a bigger effort to buy shade grown bananas and coffee, fair trade, organic (if possible), and local. I try to do all this already, but I've seen how much more needs to be done. It's overwhelming, but manageable.
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