The consumption of food is necessary in order to obtain the fuel and nutrients that our bodies need to stay healthy and productive. According to Warren Belasco in “Why Study Food” from Food: The Key Concepts, food is “our most frequently indulged pleasure, the core of our most intimate social relationships” (Why Study Food Belasco, 1). Food has a way of not only bringing people together, but also providing people with comfort. There are immense positive outcomes that occur from the consumption of food and this can lead consumers to question, “Why study food?.” Oftentimes, consumers have little knowledge on not only how their food gets from the farm to their dining table, but also what is in the food they are consuming. It is crucial for consumers
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Nonetheless, a multitude of consumers do not realize that harvesting these bananas is a labor-intensive process. According to John Solui’s excerpt, Banana Cultures: Agriculture, Consumption, and Environmental Change in Honduras and the United States, workers on banana plantations begin their shift during the middle of the night, typically around three in the morning (Solui 139). These workers are exposed to “the most insidious threats to human health found in export banana zones: the malaria-transmitting anopheles mosquito” (Solui, 139). Furthermore, the workers face the threat of the barba amarilla, which feeds on rats and opossums found in the banana plantations. This venomous snake “could produce temporary blindness, bleeding, paralysis and, if untreated, death” (Solui, 141). There is little that these workers can do to protect themselves from the mosquitos and venomous snakes and on top of that, “Mundane elements of export banana agroecosystems - including, wind, rain, soils, weeds, mules, and the banana plants themselves - also conditioned worker’s daily experiences and earnings.” (Solui, 142). These poor working conditions not only affect production, but they also affect the workers and their bodies. Workers harvest hundreds of bananas a day and as stated previously, harvesting bananas is highly laborious
Nonetheless, a multitude of consumers do not realize that harvesting these bananas is a labor-intensive process. According to John Solui’s excerpt, Banana Cultures: Agriculture, Consumption, and Environmental Change in Honduras and the United States, workers on banana plantations begin their shift during the middle of the night, typically around three in the morning (Solui 139). These workers are exposed to “the most insidious threats to human health found in export banana zones: the malaria-transmitting anopheles mosquito” (Solui, 139). Furthermore, the workers face the threat of the barba amarilla, which feeds on rats and opossums found in the banana plantations. This venomous snake “could produce temporary blindness, bleeding, paralysis and, if untreated, death” (Solui, 141). There is little that these workers can do to protect themselves from the mosquitos and venomous snakes and on top of that, “Mundane elements of export banana agroecosystems - including, wind, rain, soils, weeds, mules, and the banana plants themselves - also conditioned worker’s daily experiences and earnings.” (Solui, 142). These poor working conditions not only affect production, but they also affect the workers and their bodies. Workers harvest hundreds of bananas a day and as stated previously, harvesting bananas is highly laborious