My Organic Bananas

My wife purchases Dole organic bananas to avoid pesticides. Each banana has a little Dole Corporation sticker, stating that the banana is certified organic by the Control Union Certification and the USDA. The bananas are a product of Ecuador. The sticker invites me to visit farm 537 that produced the bananas at doleorganic.com. So I do. Farm 537 is Hacienda Celia María, S.A. / Agrícola Carmita, S.A. ...

"owned by the Jorge Encalada family whom are dedicated to agricultural activities as Cocoa, Cattle and Shrimp farms as well as organic banana production. Agricola Carmita organic banana farm is located in Balao, Guayas and Celia María organic banana farm is located in El Guabo, El Oro. The Encalada family was one of the first suppliers of organic bananas to Dole Ecuador / UBESA. Their organic banana farms are certified under EU, JAS and USDA NOP rules."

The information does not make me feel any closer to the farmer who grew the bananas. From the description and accompanying photographs, I infer the farm is a large, corporate enterprise, growing a variety of crops in several locations. The farm has a staff restaurant and restrooms--implying that the farmer is good to his laborers. Okay; but what the farm page needs is the story of the farm and its owners and operators. Why and how did the farm convert to organic production? Since the bananas are certified organic under EU rules, I assume some of its produce is sold in Europe. Was it the EU market, or the US market, that gave the family the incentive to go organic?  Does it plan to shift its other crops to organic? The farm page needs to make me, as a consumer, feel invested in its organic enterprise.

Comments

[Luis Monge]

Hi:
My name is Luis Monge, I am responsible for the Dole Organic Program website and I found your comment very interesting.
We are currently working on the BETA (second) version of the website and will try to make the improvements you refer to.
I agree with most of them, we need to provide a more complete history about each farm, it is not easy but we will do it.
Our intend is to CREATE that link between you and the farm, so we need to provide the information you need to make that link with the origin of your bananas.

Please keep visiting us at doleorganic.com and if you feel you need some more information about a farm or more ideas that could help us to improve this "service" please let me know.

Kind regards from Costa Rica
Luis Monge
Regional Certification Officer
Organic Program
Dole Fresh Fruit International, Ltd.

[San Dasha]

Given the sordid past of the Banana industry in Latin America, what I am most concerned with, even more than organics, is the quality of life for workers and what the corporation is doing for the local community other than extracting it's human and natural resources. In your redesign of the website I challenge you to convince us (the consumers) that Dole is an equitable company with a solid ethical foundation within it's business practices, although I highly doubt that is the case.