The Uncompromising Banana

This commercial gets me every time. It's super-cute, that's for sure, but it also highlights a pretty obvious problem with bananas. They travel a very long way to get here. Bananas are one of those never was, aren't now, and never will be local foods that we probably shouldn't be eating. But Americans sure love their bananas, in vast quantities. Americans, on average, consume more bananas than apples and oranges combined.

To quote from the previously-linked NY Times Op-Ed piece:

"That bananas have long been the cheapest fruit at the grocery store is astonishing. They’re grown thousands of miles away, they must be transported in cooled containers and even then they survive no more than two weeks after they’re cut off the tree. Apples, in contrast, are typically grown within a few hundred miles of the store and keep for months in a basket out in the garage. Yet apples traditionally have cost at least twice as much per pound as bananas."

But I love bananas! And so does my husband! They're delicious by themselves, with peanut butter, or honey, or chocolate...

When Barbara Kingsolver set out on her Animal, Vegetable, Miracle project, trying to live completely locally, each member in her family got to pick a free pass item: something that they would get even though it wasn't local. One chose coffee; another chose chocolate.

If Kingsolver can do it, so can I. I choose bananas (and, okay, chocolate too maybe.) Why do I think it is okay to continue to include these items? The help me stick to my resolve to eat more responsibly.

That said, if I'm going to eat bananas, I better eat better bananas, more responsible bananas. I would like to get fair trade bananas, but I haven't found anywhere in Boston yet that stocks them. Whole Foods, however, does sell their "Whole Trade" labeled bananas, and we have begun to buy those. While they do not go through the Fair Trade Certification process, Whole Foods does promise to meet certain standards about the sourcing of its products.

Yes, they're nearly twice as much per pound, but if I'm going to eat a food product with such an enormous carbon footprint, the least I could do is spend the extra money for a product with a better grower-justice history.

For a list of where to buy various fair trade certified products, including coffee, fruit, and chocolate, look here.