Green Justice group says "Buy organic bananas and save a tree"

Green Justice members Bob Moore and Julie Houff . Photo by Jo Moore.

Members of the Shoreline Green Justice Group spent an hour in the produce section of the Shoreline Safeway at 15th NE and NE 175th today, talking to customers about bananas.

The problem is not the bananas, but the fuel used in the trucks that transport them.

Today's environmental demonstration was part of a national effort by Bellingham-based Forest Ethics to protect the Boreal Forests in Alberta, Canada from destruction due to the extraction of Tar Sands for diesel fuel.

Chiquita and Dole transport their bananas in trucks that burn fuel produced from Tar Sands extract.

According to Adam Gaya, Forest Ethics Organizer,

"A typical Chiquita or Dole banana travels 3,000 miles before you buy it - and fuel for that long journey comes partly from Tar Sands refineries. With Dole and Chiquita producing half of the world's bananas, they've got a whole lot of bananas traveling a whole lot of miles with dirty Tar Sands fuel, and we see a whole lot of opportunity for positive change."

Some local stores carry organic bananas which are transported by trucks using bio-fuel. Moore points to Central Market and TOP Food and Drug as examples, as well as PCC, Whole Foods, and Trader Joes.

Moore said that they had a productive conversation with the Produce Manager but "the store manager was annoyed that we hadn't contacted him about our plans at the beginning, and he objected to our efforts to get his customers to buy bananas at the other stores and asked us to leave."