Monday, February 18, 2008

Peruvian Organic Bananas Have Infiltrated My Life

Two themes have cropped up starting with the last post: stealing ideas from All Kinds of Yum and organic food. While I am a junkie of AKOY I am not really an organic die-hard although there are really good reasons to support organic food. My current philosophy is that if I see an organic version of food I usually buy and it isn't too much more expensive than the regular version I'll buy it (I have similar easy to follow policies regarding plastic bags, recycling, carpooling, and other forms of activism). It's the lazy fat white man's way to partially save the world without really trying (or really saving the world).

But AKOY's post about organic banana farms is totally awesome and has me rethinking my lackadaisical policies in one important respect: I'm nearly willing to buy only organic bananas from Dole. This seemingly arbitrary decision is based in large part upon Dole's masterful method of marketing its organic bananas. Each bunch of organic bananas has a tag that lists the farm the banana was grown on and country of origin. You then surf to Dole's organic website, input the farm number, and up pops details about the farm, including pictures, other crops grown, location, and the organic certification credentials.

For example, my farm (number 998) is located in Tumbes, Peru, only grows bananas, and was certified BCS Oko Garantie for both European (ECC) and US (USDA) markets. Plus there are five pictures of the farm and farmers and a link to Google Earth (which is untested since I still live in the 20th century). But seriously, how cool is that? And for those who want to be in the green-loving, pit-hair-cultivating, tech-savvy, enviro-geek crowd, there's even a blog that Dole set up that is a sort of clearinghouse of green ideas. They also have nice blog colors.



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3 comments:

tannaz sassooni said...

i'm getting this sense of deja vu as i traipse through this blog. i've seen these thoughts somewhere before.... regardless, i'm happy that you have made the banana-tumbes connection. that dole business is superduper cool -- glad you're spreading the gospel!

Dole Organic Program said...

Hi!
I found your comments very interesting and they are really a compliment to our job in the Organic Program of Dole.
I am more than glad that you like our website and our effort of provide more information and build the link between you and our people in the farms.

If there is or could be in the future more info you would like to obtain about our farms, our people and our fruits, please let us know.

Thanks again for your support and for your comments,

Luis Monge
Dole Organic Program

BradleyB said...

Thanks Luis, I'll definitely keep that in mind. Hopefully I can get my friends to make me some delicious Dole Organic Banana desserts!