Bananas…

In my grade 9 social studies class we did a whole unit devoted to bananas. Of course going into class and reading bananas on the syllabus seemed a little weird, and the whole class joked about it because it seemed so absurd. But out of all the things from junior high social studies I don’t think I will ever forget what I learn’t about bananas.

In class we looked at North American supermarkets and what kind of fruits we are getting, where they come from and then learned what goes into production. We mainly focused on transnational corporations like Chiquita, Del Monte and Dole and what these companies where doing to banana farming in South America. Because it was a social studies class we covered mainly poverty, pesticides and government, and didn’t focus on waste. However yesterday a friend of mine sent me the waste side of the banana industry in an article by the Guardian, “War on Waste: new episode peels away at food extravagance.” (https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/dec/03/war-on-waste-new-episode-peels-away-at-food-extravagance )

In the article there is a video showing how many bananas are being wasted in just one plant in Australia. The video also shows awful clips of how many bananas end up getting thrown out because of size and appearance. Of course with my final project this is just another heart wrenching fact of life that is a secret societal norm.

Bananas seem like such a simple thing, not to be given a second thought… But of course, as more and more food waste is coming to the surface nothing should be overlooked.

 

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