The fair trade coffee agreement in Costa Rica focuses on labor and trade standards to provide the farmers who have smaller coffee farms a guaranteed price above the conventional market.  However, not all of the certified fair trade coffee is necessarily organic.  In order to have a Fair Trade Certification, it is required for strict environmental stewardship, like prohibiting the use of genetically modified organisms, or GMOs and the majority of most dangerous pesticides.  

No matter where we went in Costa Rica, there always seemed to be extensive fields of coffee growing by the road side.  This is obviously a large and very important industry in Costa Rica, not just as a part of the GDP, but also for employing thousands of individual.  An extensive amount of Costa Ricans work in agriculture, about 15 percent.

Bananas grow in the tropical regions within about 10 degrees of the equator and receive up to 98 inches of rainfall every year where the temperature averages 80 degrees. Chiquita owns about 37,000 acres of banana farms in Panama, Costa Rica, Honduras, and Guatemala. In 2004 the company shipped 136 million boxes to the US, Europe, Middle East, and Asia. They employ 25,000 people, and the Guayacan farm we were on cultivates on 500 acres, produces more than 10,000 metric tons of bananas annually, employs 123 workers, and pays $13 per day to the average worker plus social benefits which include health, accident, maternity, and life insurance. The bananaindustry employs 10 percent of the workforce in Costa Rica, and workers at Chiquita farms generally enjoy higher living standards than other agricutlural workers. Women make up 5 to 30 percent of Chiquitas labor force, and about 3 of 4 farms are unionized. Chiquita workers can buy homes at reduced prices, which promotes stable communities. Banana plants are the largest herb in the world. A banana plant grows continuously from the same rhizome, which sends up several shoots. There are about 1635 bananas every hectacre. Workers select the best shoot to the next prodcing plant and eliminate the rest. At 6 to 8 months, plants develop stems with large buds, and bud tiny flowers that develop into bananas. Plants are fertilized and protected from insects and diseases usuing only products approved by the US EPA and the EU regulatory agencies. All owrkers are trained appropriate agricutlure practices, occupational safety and proper use of protective equipment. Workers bag the stem to protect the fruit from insect and sun damage. Colored ribbinds are used to identify the shedulled harvest week, 10 to 13 weeks from bagging. Plants are secured with twine to ensure they dont fall over with the weight of the stem. Stems are harvested according to ribbon color and maturity. Padding protects the bananas from bruising. Workers cut stems and hang them on aerial cableways that transport the fruit to the packing station. Harvested plants are cut down, which allows new growth to flourish, and all plastic bags are then recycled.

We toured the Chiquita Banana plantation last week. We drove up on a dirt road with thousands of banana trees surrounding us. We got out and the tour guides introduced themselves to us, then put in a movie about the plantation and also the Rainforest Alliance. We then asked a lot of questions and when that was done we had a yummy meal. We then drove over to where they go through the process of picking the bananas, discarding the bad ones, cleaning the good ones, then packing them up and shipping them out to consumers. We then saw a presentation by the local women about the history of the banana plantation and also how everything works. Unfortunately the whole thing was in spanish, but the point still came across well. The Nogua Group of performers are students, homemakers, community leaders and agricultureal workers when the group was formed in July of 2004. The Chiquita Nature and community project created the Nogua group to provide additional income oppurtunities in the communities. Workshops in theater, tourism, basic administration, and human relations are offered and all incomes go directly to the group. After their show they led us into the banana plantation for how the workers harvest the bananas. They must use lots of pesticides since bananas are native to Asia, as well as build extensive drainage systems like motes because there is so much rain in Costa Rica so the plants do not drowned.

Most kinds of coffee are intolerant of direct sunlight, and prefer a canopy of sun-filtering shade trees. The trees protect the coffee from direct sun and mulch the soil with the leaves that fall on the ground that help retain soil moisture. The shade trees enrich the soil, and also provide habitat for birds. The birds in turn provide natural insect control. This sustainable method of farming uses little or no chemical fertilizers, pesticides or herbicides. In 1972, new hybrid varieties of coffee were developed to help increase production of the valuable crop. These new varieties produced significantly more coffee beans, were smaller and easier to harvest, and produced best in direct sunlight. Many growers cut their shade trees and switched to the new varieties. Of the 6 million acres of coffee lands, 60% have been stripped of shade trees since 1972. Only the small, low-tech farms, often too poor to afford chemicals, preserved their shade trees. Unfortunately, the new varieties of sun coffee came with the additional cost of the hybrids being dependent on high doses of pesticides and chemical fertilizers. Soil erosion, water runoff and soil depletion caused producers to clear vast areas of rainforest for new soil to plant, and it became apparent that this new method of growing coffee was unsustainable.
The loss of the shade trees on such a large scale also caused an estimated 20% decline in migratory bird populations in the last ten years, due to habitat loss. The diminished songbird population has been noted as far away as 1500 miles from the coffee growing regions. In 1996, the movement to support shade grown coffee was inspired by the Smithsonian Institute's Migratory Bird Center, which gathered environmentalists, farmers and coffee companies to address the problem and promote awareness of shade coffee. Today, sales of organically grown, shade coffee represent about 1%, or $30 million, of the U.S. market for coffee beans.

Conventional banana production in Central America is not sustainable. It depends on frequent and heavy agrochemical applications to reduce pest damage, increase yields, and comply with the quality standards of importing countries. This has resulted in the contamination of soil, water, and food and the poisoning of workers and local communities. Employees of banana plantations work long hours under harsh and dangerous conditions usually without a contract or adequate compensation, and are often not allowed from organizing to improve their living situation. Housing in plantation towns is often run down and overcrowded, with a lot of problems such as alcoholism, child abandonment, and physical abuse. The multinational banana corporations control all aspects of production, transportation, and marketing, limiting the control of and economic benefits provided to local people. However, more sustainable forms of production do exist. Small scale producers, operating independently of transnational corporations, are able to grow bananas without heavy agrochemical inputs, often organically. These locally controlled agricultural systems are supportive of local people, economies, and cultures. The major obstacle to the success and increased implementation of small scale systems is the lack of market demand in importing countries, primarily the United States. The only way to insure the sustainability of banana production in Central America is to increase awareness amongst consumers in the U.S. about the problems associated with conventional banana production and the benefits of supporting small scale banana growers.

Now that all of the trips are pretty much over with in Costa Rica I cannot wait to go home. I have had a great time and learned a lot about sustainablility, but I miss my mommy. Also the food here got old about four days in. I am not used to eating the same thing everyday, three times a day. I am very glad that I chose to come on this trip. It really opened my eyes how I have to change my ways, and how the world will have to change its ways in order to live in a clean world. I also really enjoyed staying with the host families because now I am really good at charades since our maid did not speak any english, and our grandma only speaks a little. They are incredibly nice and really enjoy our company because they do not get too many visitors. Anyways, I am tired and ready to get back to civilization, but I really enjoyed my experiences here.

The day after we got back from rafting, we left to go to the Osa Peninsula. I was an 8 hour drive, followed by about an hour boat ride in the rain. We started in the boat through the Mangroves, and opened into a river at the mouth leading into the Pacific Ocean. It was very a very pretty boatride, We got off onto the beach during a ¨wet landing¨ and had jeeps waiting for us there to take us to where we would be staying. Our living situation was similar to that of WWII because we were staying in tents, with a cot for us to sleep on. It was not bad though because it was the grand opening of the resort, and the first thing the owner told us was not to go hungry. We could get food any time we wanted. The only thing to do at night was to go to the common area which was a huge outside room and play cards or socialize. We went to bed the first night and were woken up at 5 in the morning to sun light and howler monkeys that seamed to be right outside the door. That day we went on a 3 hour hike through the jungle, seeing lots of leaf cutter ants, puma tracks, lizards, tucans, macaws, and termites. We had to wade across a river to get back to where the boats were for lunch, and the water was just below my chest. There was also a half eaten otter floating in the river, and after we got to the other side learned of the 7 foot crocidile that lived a couple meters away from where we crossed the river. After lunch we had an afteroon hike to a waterfall to swim in, where we were informed last year there were three crocs just above the waterfall hanging out, not bothering anybody. The next day we took a boat ride to an island about an hour away that was 300 hectacres and reserved as a national park. We went snorkling off the shore. It was cloudy out and the water was about 20 feet deep so the snorkling was not ideal, but it was still fun. We ate lunch there and saw spotted dolphins on the boatride back to our tents. The next day we left and spent about 11 hours traveling due to the roads that the locals will not pave to prevent too many tourists from flooding the region.