Bananas Destroy Lowland Forests

Bananas are another major source of income and are now bringing in twice as much money as coffee. According to Culture Shock, "Costa Rica is the second biggest banana producer in the world after Ecuador."
Banana farming requires a lot of land to be profitable. Many lowland forests have been destroyed because bananas need flat and moist land. Bananas are native to Asia. Because bananas need a lot of land there aren't small family farmers who can sell their bananas worldwide. This led to the domination by big, foreign-owned companies with local workers.
Banana farming created too much water build up so they had to create irrigation systems. This helps spread the pesticides that are sprayed on the bananas into the rivers, which go to the ocean.
Plastic bags are put over the bananas because they need shade and to keep the bugs off. If they hadn't cut down all the tropical trees from the forest they may have had enough shade to please the bananas. Also, don't they use gross pesticides to kill off the bugs? Because bananas are native to Asia they are not used to the bugs and fungus in Costa Rica. This is why they have to use so many pesticides on the plants. The plastic bags used to be a big problem because they weren't recycled properly and drifted into the ocean. Today, there are better recycling programs and some of the bags are created to be biodegradable. More harmful pesticides cause cancer and sterilization.
Six months after the banana plant is planted a large flowering stem emerges which is where the fruit comes from. One stem contains between 120 to 150 bananas. The banana fruits are bagged about two weeks old. The bananas are ready to harvest about 12 weeks after bagging.
Trivia: the average person in the US eats more than 25 pounds of bananas each year.