Bananas...to buy or not to buy?
- Helsbells
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Bananas...to buy or not to buy?
I love bananas, but they are air freighted. Is it ok to buy them if they are fair trade or organic? What do others think?
Are you sure they are air freighted... I had assumed that many would be shipped as they have quite a long shelf life and they don't actually ripen on the plants.
Ann Pan
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- marshlander
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I like narnas too! I thought they were shipped by boat as well. Arn't they the only income for some islands? I'll keep buying fairtrade/organic for now. I get frustrated that supermarkets always bag the organic ones which, apart from more plastic I don't want, I also have to buy 6 nearly ripe ones. That's a lot for just me!
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That's my take on it, too! I'm pretty sure they come by sea - unless they've changed that recently. I won't buy non-organic ones; haven't done since I learned (at uni) how they are grown - sprayed on average once a week during their one-year lifetime for and against just about anything you can imagine, and then dipped into a chemical cocktail just before shipping to prevent mould - and most of that without any concern for the safety of workers and their families...marshlander wrote:I thought they were shipped by boat as well. Arn't they the only income for some islands? I'll keep buying fairtrade/organic for now.
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- red
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I thought they were shipped.
and you have to balance buying a banana which was grown overseas and hence has a CO2 footprint due to shipping against say, an apple which was grown here.. but wait a minute.. its May .. so its been in cold storage since Autumn.. also a footprint.
I buy organic fairtrade bananas.
and you have to balance buying a banana which was grown overseas and hence has a CO2 footprint due to shipping against say, an apple which was grown here.. but wait a minute.. its May .. so its been in cold storage since Autumn.. also a footprint.
I buy organic fairtrade bananas.
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- Barbara Good
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Same here. They are the only major export from some Carribean Islands, and a major crop for countries like Honduras (the original "Banana Republic" - I used to live there).ina wrote:That's my take on it, too!marshlander wrote:I thought they were shipped by boat as well. Arn't they the only income for some islands? I'll keep buying fairtrade/organic for now.
If everyone stopped buying bananas it would have a massive negative impact on those countries, and FairTrade or not, it's the only source of income for 1000's of people.
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