Pineapples are Decadent and Depraved

Consuming pineapples is decadent and depraved.
Here's why:

A pineapple field in Ghana

Many people are unaware of how pineapples are grown. Note that each plant here is producing ONE pineapple. It takes a pineapple plant between 20 months and two years to produce each pineapple. Also note how large each of these plants are.

Because it takes so long for each pineapple to grow, and each plant is so large, the pineapple is an extremely inefficient crop. For a pineapple grower to be commercially viable, he must devote a huge swathe of landscape to his pineapples. To those of you who are familiar with issues surrounding biodiversity, the picture above is probably a bit alarming. 

The picture becomes even more alarming when you consider WHERE pineapples are grown. Pineapples love the tropics. The ones pictured above are being grown in Ghana. Historically, Hawaii has been a major producer of pineapples as well. In fact, the entire island of Lanai in the Hawaiian chain is OWNED by the Dole corporation and is used for pineapple production and corporate retreats.

As if Dole's social track record in Hawaii isn't abhorrent enough, (They helped to overthrow the Hawaiian monarchy in 1887) their ecological track record has been similarly awful. Hawaii, once a pristine Biodiversity hotspot, is now a hotspot for extinction. The loss of local bird and plant life can in part be attributed to the massive habitat destruction caused by this type of farming. The exploitation of the Hawaiian peoples can largely be attributed to the ability of their land to grow pineapples, which were once rare and comparatively expensive. 

Now, however, pineapples are not rare or particularly expensive. They can be purchased in any supermarket at almost any time of year, and they appear in a huge variety of processed fruit products. Pineapples are treated as a commodity, and most American families can afford to eat them regularly with little trouble. Demand from US households drives the market for these fruits, which should be considered a delicacy. Irresponsibly low pricing on pineapples, which take a huge toll on the environment in which they are grown, has led to massive overconsumption, which amounts to consumption of the biodiversity of the Hawaiian islands and other pineapple producing areas.

My message is this: Next time you eat a pineapple, realize that you have not paid the full cost of its production. The real cost is the degradation of tropical landscapes and the oppression of Hawaiian native culture. Pineapples are resource-intensive to grow and nutritionally mediocre, and should be treated as luxuries to be enjoyed rarely and responsibly if at all.