Santay sana squashed banana

Bananas. Super smoothie ingredient. Early baby food. Monkey fodder.
Also involved in the poisoning of communities and harvesters. Sadly.
It's the first thing I committed to buying organic. And it wasn't for my health. When it comes to protecting the fruit itself, the peel is pretty amazing for blocking out the pesticides that are used to spray the banana plants. But I read about how many of the banana farm workers won't even eat the fruit because they see how heavily they are sprayed. And even with that, the workers are still exposed, all day long.
The past month or so my husband and I--and several close friends--have been having  a lot of conversations about money, and what we're doing with what we've got in our household. My hubby pointed out that we spend a fairly large amount on our food bill now; and it's about double what it used to be before we went organic. (This was also before we had a two-year-old boy with a voracious appetite, but he hasn't doubled our purchasing! Not yet...) 3 years ago, I just thought organic foods were a luxury item for people who are really picky or nervous about what they eat. I only bought them if the item I needed was only available as an organic. I've gone through a bit of a revolution in my thinking. I'd say we're about 90 or 95% organic now in our house. I've read a lot of articles, research, and data points about how people have lower pesticide levels in their bodies and receive higher nutrient content from organic foods. And honestly, we cannot comfortably afford it. We manage it, but it isn't actually easy for us--and probably a little harder every day that our 2 year old's appetite grows more  (seriously, where do they put it?!!)
Not too long ago a friend was pointing out that you don't have to buy all organics, because some of the vegetables with thick peels are pretty low in residues anyway. And that's true. On top of that, the Clean 15 list from Environmental Working Group helps people to sort out which conventional vegetables are low in pesticides.
But I'm also thinking about the farm workers who don't get to pick what is sprayed or not sprayed on the fields; they just need a reliable job.
And I'm thinking about the soil and the waterways that are soaking up everything that is dumped onto them, year after year.
There are other things we could do with the money. Sometimes I wish we were doing other things with the money it costs us. But then I think--maybe I'm paying for these foods what they ought to cost. What they ought to cost me, who benefits from them. Not the farm worker just doing his job. Not the deteriorated, polluted soil; not the chemical water that somebody somewhere will end up drinking because they have nothing cleaner. Maybe I could save the money and buy something else for myself or my kids--or save for their future; fix up broken things in my house; even give it to charity. There are a lot of good things I could do.  But I also have the chance to invest in a more conscientious way of farming, and feeding animals for meat, by buying organic foods. It isn't charity; I benefit as much as anybody else. But I think it is also more generous to the people who live in farming communities and who make their wages working farm fields.
And maybe my banana is still a Dole banana-it's not like it came from an independent cooperative of banana farmers. But if my choice helped to force Dole to convert one or two of its banana fields from a pesticide-ridden hazard to a more humane, careful organic farm, I think I can be satisfied with the improvement.