General Chat

Hell on earth.

Enter guardian video pineapple into google, watch the short video and make your own mind up.

Since 2010 nothing has changed for the better

That was confusing - showing Dole pineapples, then the Del Monte ad!
The video was from 2010 - see my previous post about workers' conditions in 2013
(try reading it properly)
Yes, there have been concerns about the environment, hence, as from May, production by Pineco, (a subsidiary of Del Monte) in Costa Rica has been suspended.
But that's not slavery.

Are you telling me oil production and fracking don't hurt the environment?
Emissions from vehicles don't harm the environment - and regularly kill people?
Bottling water - and the resultant discarded bottles doesn't harm the environment?

I neither drive nor do I drink bottled water
Is it okay to get all superior and castigate you for driving a car or drinking bottled water, and call you a selfish fool?

Edit: and what about all the other products created with the help of slaves?
http://listverse.com/2014/12/16/10-everyday-products-that-are-made-with-slave-labor/

If the video is about slave labour, Rollo, has Global Horizons not begun to pay what the court ordered it to pay?

Are you sure that everything you eat, drink, wear, listen to and watch comes from a slave-labour-free source?

Thus proving that even the pineapple can be controversial.

It's difficult isn't it? Life I mean. I don't want anyone to have to work in substandard conditions to produce what I 'need', I think twice about the clothes I buy cheap ( not that I buy much) because I am aware that for the price I can afford to pay the people who make them get a pittance.

There was a book of articles by John Pilger I read some years ago, which highlighted the working conditions of those who work for certain major companies.

Very hard to know what can reasonably go without, eg the internet which is a luxury ( though I salve my conscience somewhat on that score in that it is also a business essential).

If you are concerned about "slavery" by companies supplying pineapples to Del Monte ...............


buy Australian grown ones.

That is also a problem I worry about Sylvia :-) the air miles and pollution caused by importing so much of our food. I bought Egyptian potatoes this week, again, because so far all the British grown ones have been tasteless and turn green quickly , including the "new" jersey royals, which used to be lovely.

Son's girlfriend posted this a couple of days ago, another way of taking advantage of people.....not slavery but intellectual property theft....

How easy it is to be called " fashion designers " when all they do is take the typical patterns and embroidery of our native peoples and put a label with a name that sounds " cool " in English...

Big retailers will copy original patterns, get reproductions made cheaply on vast machinery and sell the cloth/clothing at inflated prices and the village designers get nothing apart from the first cheap sale from which the pattern is copied.

For sure as consumers just not buying stuff won't change the world but people should have the information needed to make a choice not only about production but also the product. How popular would cheap pinapples be if it got around more of the "within permissible limits" chemical overhead?

Australian agriculture is an environmental disaster dating all the way back to the Murray river / Snowy mountains irrigation project.

Well it was a spur of the moment holiday and I guess it has not harmed Dorset's tourist industry.

If I start a perfectly ordinary thread and most of the posts are moronic off topic personal digs at me then sure I will drop it. Tant pis.

Sorry about any invonvenience.

Who knew the humble pineapple could be so controversial .... :-D

a poll on whether you like pineapple or something

:-S

Everything goes well - then someone has to 'declare' something is wrong with what people are happily chatting about, with an alleged 'statement of fact' that is just bullsh*t. :-P :-P

Still only like raw pineapples though. :-D :-D

I much prefer pineapples to B******t :-D

:-D :-D :-D :-D

Interesting video Rollo, thankyou.

Interesting link Maggie ( I knew about the shrimps... I don't eat those either)

Thanks to those who have made relevant comments on pineapples, my own contribution is this C & P

"Pineapples were first brought to Europe from Guadeloupe in the Caribbean by Christopher Columbus in 1493. The word comes from the fruit’s resemblance to a pine cone and is first recorded in English in the 1660s.

In the 18th century a pineapple cost the equivalent of £5,000 today. They became such a symbol of wealth that the pineapple motif was used to decorate buildings – John Murray, the 4th Earl of Dunmore, built a 75ft-high stone one atop a pavilion in his estate in 1761."

But I still won't be eating them :-)

Very concerned about the use of pesticides generally, as anyone who knows me knows. Along with all things environmental and I do try and 'put my money where my mouth is' albeit on a very tiny scale and probably of little use as the planet and mankind head towards annihilation.

On which typically cheerful note, I bid you good night
:-)

:-D :-D :-D

Rollo of course knows much more about Australian agriculture than I do ;-)

He's probably found something from the 1960's.

It was interesting ....... when we were there, the whole of the valley beyond the pineapple fields were in danger. The state government had announced this wonderful plan to dam the river flowing through the valley, to provide a huge reservoir that would provide water for the connurbation of Brisbane. It would have flooded fertile land, towns, villages, damaged or destroyed the habitat of a number of endangered species, etc etc

Fortunately, that idea was refused approval by the Federal Environment Minister.

It's easy to go off at a tangent on most threads

.............tasteless Jersey Royals. I so agree.

I understand that the taste has altered since seaweed was stopped being used as a fertiliser?

I think a few farmers still use seaweed but not many. Another possible reason for the lack of that special Jersey Royal flavour is that these days the potatoes are often grown under plastic.

Going back to pineapples, this morning I was walking past one of the many charity shops in our town when my husband asked why I was grinning. There, in the middle of the window, wa a large stone pineapple :-D. I thought of making an offer for it but didn't fancy lugging it home on the bus.