Cancer rate is going up more and more in some regional if thats what i mean. What consequences does that have for us can we enjoy these sweet cheap fruits with a clear conscience are there alternatives. To. The wholesale market in hamburg at four in the morning this is where exotic fruits from around the world make their way into germany bananas oranges melons and mangoes are all popular and pineapples particularly so germany is by far the biggest consumer in the e. U. The country imports more than one hundred and fifty thousand tonnes of this sweet fruit every year mostly from costa rica prices have been low for you. Years regardless of the brand consumers only pay between one and three euros often less than the cost of a kilogram of apples from germany. The fruits and up with the german consumer within a matter of hours they make up twenty percent of the e. U. Imports of pineapples tropical fruits are available everywhere these days even that regional weekly markets pineapples rich in vitamin c. Are among the most popular fruit available on average each german consumes almost two kilograms per year. As i now like eating pineapples and tropical fruits pun apple sells very well for pioneers everything that still in the us and a few languages a pop in a two month now see. But the biggest buyers of exotic fruits in germany are supermarkets and discount chains more than ninety percent of the imported goods are sold here that makes them important players in the global fruit trade and consequently also in the pineapple trade. Franziska whom batt from the International Charity oxfam helped with a study into growing pineapples in costa rica she believes the supermarkets are responsible because their market power allows them to dictate prices. I live and die slim fast in gemini the fool major chains audi leader and reva control eighty five percent of german food sales thats highest kind the company in full by then supply has cant get by them if they want to sell their goods can set prices and terms to their supply and that you can. Stem can the supermarkets power has grave consequences for the producers in their home countries thats the message jorge mora president of the costa rican Environmental Organization a. R. C. A. Wants to convey he wants to convince as many consumers as possible with the help of german Partner Organizations by the. Husband being produce it we may need a role in this they are using a lot of pesticides that are contaminating the water a supply system so many communities they are cutting many natural forest to plant by not nor will they have that beriberi but on the asians to the workers in the plantations saw as important that the german public know knows what is happening in the valley be in costa rica and thats why theyll be meeting jorge mora later in his home country are consumers also to blame for the questionable conditions involved in growing pineapples what responsibility do supermarkets and discount chains have most of them advertised their fruits with certificates stating their products are sustainable but theres no denying the fact that its the supermarkets and discount chains that profit most from pineapples then come the producers often the Major InternationalFruit Companies such as dole and chiquita who pocket a quarter of the proceeds the workers on the farms get less than ten percent. How does all this fit together can we buy pineapples with a clear conscience we want to fight. It out for ourselves what growing conditions are like in costa rica. And. Untouched beaches stretching for kilometers into the distance go steady is a dream destination for many tourists from europe and the United States thanks to its dense rain forest and its rich flora and fauna costa rica is a model country ecologically the country is doing well economically to go study as one of the richest countries in Central America agriculture is an Important Pillar of its wealth the climate is perfect old year round for many tropical fruits that benefits the International Fruit companies too they sell tons of this produce to europe and the United States. Not. Pineapples have drawn level with bananas as the most important export fruit in recent years. Study exports around two Million Tonnes worth almost a billion dollars annually making it the world leader more and more land is being used to grow pineapples this makes conflicts inevitable for example many traditional farmers and livestock owners are increasingly marginalized by the huge plantations run by international companies. Just to get to his livestock farm jorge cost to go has to cross endless pineapple plantations his land is surrounded by them so far hes refused to sell out to the companies but now his livelihood hangs in balance because growing pineapples results in tons of harvest waste the ideal breeding ground for a blood sucking fly thats causing a problem for his cattle. If the brain barrier thought look at these traps we hang them here this is one of. These flies will cause a lot of stress when they bite on the cocker the cows are never receptive so they dont reproduce. The cows give less milk and theyre losing a lot of weight his neighbor has already lost fifteen animals to the flies he tells us things were better before the pineapple plantations came along into enough and ive lived if a thirty five years it was nice everyone lived in peace animals reproduced we were able to drink our milk you know and you know i feel powerless because we farmers onto important and off to the government of costa rica the scales have tipped towards big business businesses have been abandoned completely. To voice his protest jorge cost low has taken a cow and a horse to the capital san jose he even got to speak to the president but nothing has changed Jorge Castaneda has lost a piece of his home because costa rica lost some of its unspoiled nature to the pineapple plantation would come roughly at this time of day now the waters polluted chemicals come from those ditches. Boy those big media birds dont come anymore because theres no food for them again with any money no is going to both in order to get a kidney. Lagoons and wetlands enjoy strict protection in costa rica but pesticide contamination in the water is a big problem its a small country but it uses the most pesticides in the world eighteen point two kilograms per hectare and has the longest list of approved Agro Chemicals. That doesnt just have consequences for the environment but for the people to. Him a lot of Agro Chemicals are part of the peoples daily lives. The ground water is polluted with brahma settle here a herbicide thats now banned and believed to be carcinogenic and harmful to the digestive system Drinking Water is only available twice a week its supplied by the state via tank trucks. The pesticides have made mulattoes groundwater unusable for decades to come the cause of intensive pineapple farming in the surrounding area. For years now she meowed but as she has been carrying Drinking Water from the Distribution Site on the road to her house its traditionally been a womans job cannot korea its too hard for some women so instead they use the contaminated water from the tap there are Health Problems we cannot say with certainty that its because of the chemicals but weve noticed that that are a lot of miscarriages in the area there are children who drink the water because they dont know how we manage that the water is polluted but we have to use it for. Housewares get into the mccartney use it to wash the laundry and for example is the same. Fear for their children has made the residents of milano and the vicinity organize protests against the pineapple plantations but to no avail. Although the state run Water Authority has laid new pipes for Drinking Water milanello doesnt have the money to get connected as a result every sip of water that doesnt come from the tank truck remains a health risk particularly for children. The authority responsible for supplying the lotto with clean water is a why the state Water Authority its been run by yummy let us start it off for the past three years she says intensive pineapple cultivation is a big problem in costa rica because the consequences are affecting more and more towns. Here let us out there are other communities to where water sources had to be given up because they were contaminated im concerned more communities will find their water polluted too because pineapple farming has expanded out so much its use of acro chemicals is very high. However theres not much to suggest that the plantations will change their production methods large quantities of pineapples for little money thats also a consequence of the pressure supermarkets are putting on the producers. There are new initiatives to make production more sustainable but politicians cant agree how much pineapple cultivation should be regulated. We need jorge mora once more near milan he wanted to inform supermarket customers in germany about the effects of cheap pineapples on his home country. Not at all theres too little Drinking Water quite generally because of the contamination that leads to problems such as diarrhea and other problems connected with too little will. Still the cancer rate has been going up significantly in some areas that most people the concept isnt present bundle. Hold him or takes us to pina fruit a plantation owned by a group or a colony. It also says binya food on the labels of the pineapples that aldi nord sells in germany we spontaneously ask jorge mora to take some water from the edge of the pineapple field. Even though its not a professionally taken sample we want to have it tested in germany and find out for ourselves what toxins can be detected. As we later find out our presence didnt go unnoticed we were being watched we find out about the consequences a few days later but first we had to the north of the country the largest pineapple plantations are found close to the border with nicaragua many of the people here work on the plantations most of them are illegal i ten or and workers brought across the border for. They cut agua by a sub contractor and passed on to the companies as cheap labor theyre often paid significantly less than the National Minimum wage we meet one worker whos willing to talk to us but he doesnt want to be recognized. Im from nicaragua i flipped to illegally for a sub contract for four years ive never had a written contract i tenement workers get less money. You normally get bonuses if you work with toxic chemicals but we never got these bonuses. Poverty wages in affluent costa rica as the price for cheap pineapples in europe we try to address the matter with the operators of conventional plantations but nobody wanted to speak out on camera one filming appointment that had been agreed was even cancelled we have no success either with come up at the Costa Rican Association of pineapple producers when we show up for the scheduled interview were told we may not film the building or the sign inside we realize that various recording equipment has been installed cameras are streaming the scene to a location unknown to us the mood is tense were accused of having spoken to employee representatives were also criticized for meeting with jorge mora when the situation threatens to escalate we stop the interview. A few days later come up complains about our allegedly one sided reporting in a press release. The reach of the conventional pineapple industry extends to the world of politics to costa ricas minister of agriculture wrote a letter to his ambassador to germany asking him to exert influence with the t. V. Station and prevent negative reporting about costa ricas agriculture. Quote i appeal to you to get your offices to sort out and correct this matter with the television station prior to the publication of this documentary. Critical reporting on workers rights and the environmental conditions on the pineapple plantations is not wanted but costa rica does have alternatives to conventional cultivation with its poverty wages and high use of pesticides. Theres a plantation surrounded by rain forest thats trying to use organic methods pesticides arent used here and the workers all come from the surrounding villages the production is costly some of the harvest can neither be processed further nor export its. Owner freddie gamboa regularly has to reject unsuitable produce. From the hood of the sun this is a healthy fruit with a good cause it looks very good and smells delicious delicious this one off with a perfect this is a perfect fruit that is suitable to be eaten like place the. Thing up is throat looks good at first glance but when we turn it around we can see it was damaged probably by an insect and thats why we cant export all so this fruit down to most of the india most up to. Export that i know in their organic cultivation takes a lot of time and effort because pineapples have a lot of natural predators and i recall exxon that we doing requires the most it rains a lot not so good for pineapples but good for wheat stew. Since chemical herbicides are banned in organic farming this plantation uses plastic sheets to suppress weed growth gamboa says without plastic sheets there would be no organic farming after the harvest the plastic has to be removed from the soil a time consuming process and a major cost factor its also impossible to get all the plastic out nevertheless freddie gumbo a believes firmly in organic farming could it be a model for all of costa rica. We need to change an attitude across the whole chain from the producer to the supermarkets and to the ba is we all have to change for that to be possible. Is far away from such a solution just one percent of pineapple exports to europe are organic. To laborious production process and the higher costs put many producers off and neither supermarkets nor consumers are willing to pay higher prices and even organic farming and tails a monoculture and requires land at the expense of the rain forest and pineapples are now grown on five thousand hectares that used to be rain forest and most of them are conventionally grown but it doesnt have to be this way. Manuel middle homma has lived in costa rica for thirteen years of forester from bavaria hes a licensed assessor that means he checks farms and verifies their sustainable organic cultivation on behalf of various organizations his specialty is perma culture everything is grown in the forest and therefore mostly in its original environment including pineapples his place of work is often deep in the rain forest. This plantation is to be so. To find so it can sell to europe and america im going to take a look at the whole thing but its my her helmet is going to as my there are a lot of other plants growing here the ground is green and this species diversity is hot in thick and theres even the people there are long of insects and different products ranging from coco to be anonymous and put body and im going to spend all of this vision really on the earth look i can tell right away on that chemicals havent been used for years and thats a good indication one of. The side by side cultivation of cocoa plants and coconut palm trees but nannas and pineapples creates an ecosystem in which every variety benefits from the others this is the original and natural setting for pineapples. Because its a sin if you find apples here are vigorous and strong even though there are other plants growing via thats on normally kill it with herbicides and regular Production Systems this shows its possible this is a good looking pineapple you can see these crown cuttings really clearly. You can easily use them to create new plants so that you dont have to buy any scene its all make other investments. Just like the from them can in a perma culture setting nature regulates almost everything on its own without chemicals or plastic but the producers in the rainforest cant keep up with the pressure on prices put on them by supermarkets their returns would be too low and the product much too expensive to supply the European Market that i thought and the pressure on prices comes about because of the huge bias and also a big supermarket chains are among the biggest produce purchases in costa rica and they dictate the price which gives producers a level of certainty and they say. Ill buy your products for years to come for this process and you have to supply it and of course this pressure on prices that produces gas is pasta on to work they employ illegal workers who dont have social all Health Insurance sometimes its even. The supermarkets and discount chains go for mass produced goods thats only possible with conventional methods with all the known consequences were back in germany the result of our nonrepresentative what allowed to be used by farmers in europe but they still contaminate the water in costa rica all three are presumed to be carcinogenic in response to our inquiry grupo accolon of the operator of the pina fruit plantation denies using these pesticides. Now we are interested in the pena food pineapples we find some at all the nord. We take them to the lab and we want to know if the pesticides from costa rica can be detected in germany too are we consuming them if we eat these pineapples the last states that both the skin and the pulp have to be checked together to run this test we also have the stock tested. After a few days we learned that the pineapple is fine. The figures for the stock and the pulp are harmless in todays view. Its a different situation for the crown miss moses wouldnt have its a very positive result for the consumer we only found traces of the pesticides in the fruit itself but you have to be careful when you remove the crown im just a few touch it its best to wash your hands all rinse the knife so you dont contaminate the fruit its a full flush and the reason for that is die as an on an insecticide that is absorbed through the skin its thought to be harmful to our d. N. A. And is probably carcinogenic its use is banned in the e. U. Although threshold limits were not crossed that only holds true for the fruit not the stub the maximum levels for the fungicide Flutie Oxon Hill in the fruit and the husk were massively increased in twenty fifteen in fact it was made seven hundred times higher at the request of the manufacturer the reason for that the e. U. Commission states quite openly is that it wants to avoid trade barriers but for us it means that just a couple of years ago the pineapple we just tested would have been classified as Hazardous Waste consumers can decide for themselves whether they want to get pineapples amiss or whether they want to opt for the somewhat more expensive organic pineapple instead supermarkets can put pressure on the producers to maintain social and environmental standards. But to achieve that it would be necessary to pay fair prices and to inspect the standards on the farms. Exuding. The but. This weeks. Looking for mention the car race. Six weeks before. To sail around the world sebastian no place like home species how cozy comfy can be moved. Around thirty news coming. Up. We make up oh but we watch as folks there and as much as we all the seven surface of. Me want to shape the continents future the be part of the american youngsters especially share their stories their dreams and their challenges. To the seventy seven percent of the big platform for africa charge. Our fighters want to start families to become farmers or engineers everyone of the master plan for your children. The learning is just that the children who have already been the n. I. C. U. And those that will follow are part of a new hire serfs. They could be the future of. Granting opportunities global news that matters d. W. Made some minds. A Climate Change is affecting us all. The players rising sea levels and imagine where the. Streets. Change. Through entire communities. The for the good news is our own choices in energy conservation. Recycling. In transport. All the line find out what you can do today and read all the lines not all. Player. Play. This is g. W. News live from berlin voting is now getting underway in russias far east as the country goes to the polls to choose a new president but its likely the new one will be a familiar face but in your putin is expected to easily win out forth in office also coming up. The tide of misery