EARTH University Bananas

For more than fifteen years, EARTH University faculty, staff, and students have been experimenting on EARTH´s on-campus banana farm. Together, they have developed new techniques to increase quality and reduce the environmental and social impact of commercial banana production. Several of the environmental management techniques developed at EARTH over the years have become banana industry standards.

As part of a broad partnership with Whole Foods Market, bananas from EARTH´s on-campus farm are now exclusively available in nearly all Whole Foods Market stores in the United States. EARTH is proud to participate in Whole Foods Market´s Whole Trade™ Guarantee program which ensures products are produced according to strict quality, labor, community, and environment criteria. 

EARTH University bananas are produced using a combination of techniques to reduce the impact on the environment, including:

• No use of herbicides. Weed control is manual.
• Use of organic post-harvest fungicide.
• Recycling of organic waste into compost and paper.
• Use of chemicle-free bags to protect fruit in fields.

EARTH pays its full-time farm employees above industry average wages and benefits. Through students, faculty, and staff EARTH is engaged - as an integral part of its mission - in a variety of projects to improve economic, environmental, and social conditions in the towns surrounding the campus.