Wow - EARTH Banana Plantation Tour

     Yesterday Becky, William, Martin, and I went on a tour of EARTH's banana plantation and processing facilities.  For us Michiganders, who previously had pretty much zero understanding of just how bananas are grown, processed, and shipped to other destinations, it was truly a fascinating and eye-opening experience. We learned a great deal not just about the production of this incredibly important fruit crop, but also about the philosophy of EARTH University. 

    Our tour guide was the banana plantation manager Eric who is a native Tico, speaks excellent English, and is extremely skilled and dedicated to his work. His enthusiam was contagious. We were also joined by Kristine Jiminez, who is the assistant to Earth University President Jose Zaglul and who has been our incredible and wonderful host during our stay here. It hasn't hurt that she and her husband Eduardo and their kitten Coco live next door!

     We all loaded up in our vehicle and headed out on the dirt road toward the plantation area. Suddenly, voices started shouting at me to stop. I slammed on the brakes just in time to miss a line of blue plastic bags bursting with bunches of bananas moving across the road on a cable and trellis system.

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It was a close call, and we all had a good laugh about how I would have explained this to our rental car company had we gone a few feet further.

     We then learned that the banana moving cable and trellis system is something EARTH University pioneered as a labor-saving device. In the past at EARTH and elsewhere still, endless heavy loads of bananas are still moved by backbreaking human labor. In twenty short years or so, EARTH has been responsible for a lot of amazing innovations in the production of bananas. 

     For example, EARTH was the first to fully utilize all the waste products of banana production from the leaves to the stems to the damaged bananas and so forth. In addition to composting, they even make beautiful recycled paper out of the banana stalks, rather than disposing in a fashion that ultimately ends up over-loading nutrients into fragile streams and watershed areas as many of the larger companies such as Dole and Chiquita do.  Indeed, companies such as these are now sending their people to EARTH to learn about ways to make their operations more ecologically-based and sustainable.   

     We are fortunate that the founders of EARTH recognized the opportunities that the existing banana plantation provided to influence and increase the sustainability of commercial agriculture on a much wider scale.

      With the bananas now out of the roadway, we drove over to one of the plantation "blocks" to see firsthand the cultivation techniques.  There are about 1,000 acres of land in banana production at EARTH (total campus size is about 6,000 acres or roughly the same size as the CMS/Arcadia property that GTRLC just purchased). There are four different production blocks and about 120 workers who service the growing, harvesting, processing, and shipping of the bananas grown here.  I also understand that in most years the plantation does generate revenues for the university, which is another plus, though it is subject to the ups and downs of the market with fluctuations in supply and demand. 

     The cultivation of bananas is fascinating.  The trees are grown in rows and only two limbs are allowed to grow at any given time. The base of a third, thick limb that previously bore fruit is visible on every tree, but it is chopped down and decaying. This limb is called the "grandmother" or "grandfather," while the tall productive limb laden with bananas is called the "son" or "daughter," and the small growing limb that will bear fruit in another nine to eleven months is the "grandson" or "granddaughter."

     The limb that is bearing fruit is tended with the devotion parents typically reserve for their offspring. Bananas are hugely labor-intensive, and require weekly care to ward off the terrible leaf disease, like a cancer, that invades all banana plantations. Because there is no cure, the only recourse is to control the disease. This is done with machetes sharp enough to shave with that surgically remove the diseased portions of the leaves. When the block manager demonstrated his blade, my sons' eyes widened in awe and we all automatically took a step backward.

     The daily and weekly tending and growing techniques to produce healthy fruits is remarkable.  Extensive pruning of banana "fingers" and flowers at just the right time is essential to produce "hands" that contain beautiful, healthy, unblemished, good-sized fruits. I could go on and on, but suffice to say every time we eat a banana from now on, we will have a much deeper appreciation of this amazing fruit and the agricultural skills and devotion required to get that product to our kitchen. 

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    When we visited the processing and shipping facility, we donned mesh nets over our heads to prevent any contamination of the fruits during this critical stage of production. The banana bunches were coming in quickly on the cable system as a worker logged them in on a computer. The level of detail and attention to quality and evaluation that goes on in each and every production step is amazing and impressive. For example, soft pillows were inserted in vulnerable places on the banana stalk out in the field before it moved off on the pulley system towards the production facility on each and every stalk of bananas in order to keep the fruits from rubbing or jarring against one another and bruising.

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     While all this was going on, a radio blared, playing an interesting mix of Latin and American music, very upbeat and matching the fast-paced rhythm of the workers whose hand-eye skills were amazing to watch as they performed surgical-like precision cuts in separating the bunches and on other tasks such as the washing, weighing and labeling.   

      On this day, bananas were being processed with an EARTH stamp and were headed for the Whole Foods chain of grocery stores in the United States. Upon learning that, Becky laughed and told the story about how my mother purchased bananas at Whole Foods in Ann Arbor several years ago and gave one to Martin and he actually liked it, commenting that it tasted better than any banana he'd ever eaten. (Too bad his conversion to bananas was temporary - wish we had a Whole Foods store in Traverse City!)

     Whole Foods has a large contract to purchase EARTH bananas. These particular bananas, unlike those destined to be purchased from EARTH by companies like Dole and Chiquita, are dosed with an organic-based rather than a chemical spray before being boxed and shipped to prevent rot and fungal problems due to the shipping process. 

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     EARTH has been a pioneer in organic solutions as well, and Eric proudly described how they worked together with Whole Foods to get all the required FDA approvals (which are extensive for international agricultural commodities as you might imagine) so the product could be sold under the "EARTH" label in the U.S. 

      We then watched two extremely strong workers load the EARTH-labeled bananas onto a refrigerated truck bound for Limon, on the Caribbean, ultimately to be shipped to Wilmington, Delaware, for East Coast distribution.

     Simply amazing! After leaving the processing facility, we toured the recycled banana waste paper production facility, also on the EARTH campus, which has been a pioneer in its own right. 

     In reflecting upon what we learned and experienced yesterday morning, I thought about the parallels with what both EARTH and the Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy are doing to make our planet more sustainable.  On the 6,000-acre CMS/Arcadia project, we too had to make a decision about the continuation of commercial agriculture on the property - in this case primarily cherry production on the "back land" area away from the dunes and coastal forest zone. Thankfully, our Conservancy also recognizes that change comes gradually and that protecting the vital resource comes first. Agriculture will continue in this globally-unique and precious fruitbelt area bordering Manistee and Benzie County thanks to the Regional Conservancy and our donors, and while it is not even close to 100% organic, the ratio will get better as knowledge increases and methods improve, just as is happening here at EARTH.   

     But back to the banana. To see this amazing fruit through its production cycle, from its infancy in the fields to its final journey into a refrigerated truck bound for international sale, was an unforgettable educational experience for children and adults alike. It will be impossible for me to ever eat a banana so cavalierly again, for I now have a better sense of just how much care goes into producing this beautiful, nutritious, and beloved fruit.

Comments

[Brenda Reints]

WOW! What a terrific day you had at the banana plantation! One question...Where's Lucky? You didn't sell him did you?
Love, Brennie!

[R.J.]

That bannana plantation must of ben a lot of fun

R.J.

[Ellie Smith]

Wow what story about growing bananas. Sure do like the head covers and who's the guy with a beard????

We have had two days of wonderfully warm and spring like days. Snow almost gone!

[Cathy Semer]

Beck, you should have your blog published! Wonderful writing. Maybe the WholeFoods newsletter people would be interested??
Wish I could be there...you guys are awesome!
-cat

[Bill Myers]

Greetings Chown Family - What a terrific experience! Who was the bearded guy in the photo?

Pinewood Derby weigh-in is tonight. I'm sure the land-speed record is safe this year until William returns next year.

Bill

[Janet Mortensen-Chown]

Glen! Shame! Shame! Have you forgotten? We have in Traverse City, a store that is much better than Whole Foods. We have Oryana our food coop! I hope you all got a taste of tree riped bananas. There's nothing more sweeter! Thanks for all the info and wonderful writing. Looking forward to more news and update. Love to you all, Aunt Jannie

[Aunt Audrey]

Hi from Roger and Audrey. We are jealous and wish were there. It's cold and windy in Sault Ste. Marie. Tell the kids the first boats are coming next week.

[Marty Fluharty]

Chowns,
Just knew you'd love it. Glad that you are staying long enough to really understand why I too love EARTH. Sorry I'll miss you -I arrive May 10th.

Marty

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Yesterday Becky, William, Martin, and I went on a tour of EARTH's banana plantation and processing facilities. For us Michiganders, who previously had pretty much zero understanding of just how bananas are grown, processed, and shipped to other destinations, it...

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Yesterday Becky, William, Martin, and I went on a tour of EARTH's banana plantation and processing facilities. For us Michiganders, who previously had pretty much zero understanding of just how bananas are grown, processed, and shipped to other destinations, it...