December 31, 2019 • 48 mins
Throughout its history, the much-sought-after pineapple has symbolized friendship, luxury, and royalty. Anney and Lauren take another look into the pineapple's history and future with help from some of the people they met on Oahu.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
Hello, and welcome Savor Production of I Heart Radio and
Stuff Media. I'm Anny Rees and I'm Lauren Local Bam
and today we're doing a redo of Pineapple Pineapple again
to more pineapple sort of. It's a it's a two
point oh because we did go to Hawaii, which you
(00:27):
might know, that's a lot of stuff about pineapple, a
lot of pineapple involved in their history. And yeah, we
kind of have more to say about pineapple. We do. Um,
we were just going to do it as a as
a classic and at a little bit of new info
at the top. But yeah, this was also I was
I started to listen to it, and this was just
such a super early episode and I thought that that
(00:48):
we could just do it better justice. It's one of
my favorites. I mean, you know, pineapple is one of
your favorites, isn't it. Yes, also that, but also the
history of this one fascinating. Oh yeah, oh my gosh. Um,
and I mean for furthermore. Yeah, like basically everyone that
we spoke with in Hawaii, uh talked about pineapple. Yeah.
(01:11):
It was one of those things where in the back
of my mind at least I kept thinking, wow, well
we've already done pineapple, but they're all talking about pineapple.
Maybe we should revisit pineapple. Always want to revisit pineapple. Sure, yes,
yes it's not it's not good for me, but it's
one of those things that I can't eat. Um do
(01:32):
do possibly to its enzyme bromelin, which which listener Aaron
hipped us to in the way back. Still need to
check on that. Apparently apparently bromlin is is broken down
by heat, which means it Canned pineapple and canned pineapple
juice are okay for some folks with a pineapple intolerance
because the canning involves heating. Um. I honestly have not
had a day yet where I was like, you know,
(01:54):
I really feel like testing this out. That's fair that
that's a very specific day where you probably need the
whole day. Yeah alone. Yeah, not a lot going on
right nowhere to be lots of ginger just in case.
Yeah yeah, maybe one day but maybe not, maybe not,
(02:18):
but yeah, so so many of our interviewees brought it up.
Taylor Kellerman actually got his start in pineapple. He was
our buddy from Coolo a ranch Um and the Cohana Distilleries,
sugarcane fields and agricole um production all happened on what
used to be a pineapple plantation, the one that Taylor
used to work on in fact, and we can we
(02:39):
can run a quote here if we want to. Do
you guys want to I always want to quote. So
all of the land that we're gonna walk on today
is going to be old Dolmante land. So it started
off as sugarcane back in eighteen probably seventy, maybe a
touch earlier than that. Del Monte had all of this
(03:01):
land down this corridor. Now it's divided up amongst some
small plot farmers and frankly a few big guys too.
Um but Delmonte has they dug out about ten years ago.
It was really big news. It's really expensive to farm
in Hawaii. Growing pineapples and the Philippines seemed like a
better idea. And the sugar industry is dead here as well.
(03:22):
The last milk closed in So when you think commodity
production in the world, Hawaii is not the place to
do it. Expensive labor, expensive land, and you have to
ship everything. So it's kind of a weird thing that
it ever worked, even for a little bit that was
(03:44):
not Taylor. But but Kyle Rittner from the Cohana Distillery
that you just heard, uh yeah, And Senator Donovan Dela
Cruz even said that he was inspired to make agricultural
policy one of his main prod checks like as a
government servant because of the pineapple industry. Um, but more
(04:04):
on that later. Yeah, it was just everywhere, the kind
of ghost of pineapples past and its power that it
once held in Hawaii everywhere. Yeah. I'm also you consumed
it a lot through through many cocktails and Dylan and Andrew. Um,
there was let's see, there was that one at the
(04:25):
Harry's Hardware Emporium that elevated slushyah. Oh and the Royal Hawaiian,
the super Fancy my tie, Yes, that was good. And
the one we talked about in our Lily Coy episode.
I don't think I had pineapple in it, but it
came with a very because you had to get one
without the big garnish. Yeah, because it had this beautiful
pineapple wedge. And I had some fresh pineapple at a
(04:49):
farmer's market to oh my god, Oh my god, I'm
really jealousy. This is one of my biggest because I
know you have a lot of things that you can't
really eat. This is the one that really hurts. I
feel pain for you because it's so good. It's all right,
(05:10):
I can I can smell it. Well, okay, I appreciate
the silver linings of it. I don't think it's the same,
but I I appreciate what you're trying to do. I
thank thank you. I you're welcome. Um, do just bring
us to our question. I suppose it does. Pineapple? What
(05:35):
is it? Well, a pineapple is the fruit of a
plant by the botanical name a nanas comosis. I think
I'm saying that right. Every pineapple is actually made up
of dozens of individual fruits that have grown and smushed
up together into a hole. The plant has long, spiky
green leaves circling a single stem, and that stem will
(05:56):
put off ahead of a tiny red or purple flowers
which each developed into these fruits. And yeah, that's what
All the segments or like eyes on the fruit are
evidence of those individual berries that grow from the individual
flowers on the plants. A single central stem which which
becomes the core of the fruit very cool, and the
(06:17):
rind of the resulting fruit. Um, it's called multiple fruit.
Perhaps obvious reasons um. The rind is stiff and waxy UM,
with a small spike on each segment, and that's the
butt end of each flower um, plus a specialized leaf
called a bract. That's the little spiky bit. Yeah. Um. Also,
the stem will grow a tuft of shorter green leaves
(06:37):
at its top, forming the crown of the fruit. And yeah,
the whole plant can grow uh like one and a
half meters tall about about five feet so yes. The
result is an oblong fruit with an inedible rind that's
anywhere from green to yellow to orange to reddish. When
it's ripe UM, often a combination of a couple of
those will appear in each little segment, and the flesh
inside can range in color from yellow to white, with
(06:59):
a juicy, stringy segments surrounding a firmer and stringier core.
The flavor is is bright to the point of almost
sharpness um and tropical um, and can range from sort
of like puckery to super sweet. Yes. Kind of has
a nice burn, yeah, like in the best way, the
best kind of burn. Yeah. I like a good burn,
(07:22):
me too. I've got around the same page there, um,
but you've probably only had one type of pineapple and
that is the m D two cultivar, which is a
hybrid that was developed to preserve the sweetness while lowering
the acidity and preventing browning, which was a problem for UM.
The previously most popular fresh pineapple type called smooth Cayenne.
(07:43):
I love that name. Smooth kay. That should be a
band name. If it isn't already, somebody do it, get
on it. Um smooth smooth cayne makes up more than
of the m D two hybrid. But um, Yeah, there
are lots and lots and lots of varieties, some of
which I think you can only find on Hawaii. Yes,
And that is one of my biggest regrets is that
(08:05):
we didn't I know, there's a place that you can go,
and I think it was varieties. It was several, several
that you could try. And this was kind of news
to me that some pineapple they were all these different
types and I could only get them in this one place,
and we didn't go. We didn't get around to it.
Oh no, well we just have to go back. I mean,
(08:26):
that's okay, Okay, that's sure. No manage pineapple harvesting still
has to be done largely by hand, and it takes
about two years for pineapple to grow to peturity. Um
harvesters walk through the crop in these thick suits to
protect themselves from the spiky leaves, and once the crop
is harvested, the field will be nucked down to make
(08:48):
way for the new growing cycle. Oh m hmm, the
kind we eat our Seedless you grow new pineapple by
rooting a piece of an existing plant. To form the seed,
you would need pollination and um how birds are the
most frequent pollinators. However, seed formation isn't great for the
quality of the fruit, which is why Hawaii prohibits the
importation of hummingbirds. No hummingbirds, no hummed to keep them
(09:11):
out those Someone else finally said it, Annie Reese doesn't
really like dogs, doesn't like hummingbirds. I am a people
pleaser all around. Also, I got some negative thoughts on
baby Yoda. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. Don't don't
come at me. I've already experienced it before. Don't do it.
(09:36):
Oh heck, that that would be serious. I'm like, okay, Like,
dogs are slobberry like I get if you, I don't know,
like you might be allergic to them. But baby Yoda
is good and pure and perfect. You're right, I shouldn't
have even joked about such a thing. I've learned a
valuable lesson here. Huh. Pineapples, though are, are apparently easy
(09:58):
to grow on your own. You just take the crown
from the plant of one that you you know, have
presumably eaten, but put the crown somewhere dry and dark
for a week so it'll harden. And then in an
eight inch porous pot with good drainage, not bad drainage,
lay down a layer gravel than light, layer soil, composted material,
and huala, let it grow. I want it starts to grow,
(10:20):
you want to transplant it to a to a bigger
pot with the same conditions. But I know this partially
because there's this nice fellow who sometimes hangs out in
a local farmers market, your decab farmer's market, near the pineapples,
and talks to people buying the fruit about how to
grow pineapples. He's like, did you know that you can
just grow your own pineapple? You think that's just like
(10:40):
a hobby for him. I think it is. I think
he's like a retired hard culturist or something like that. Oh,
that's I like that and sharing he's just right. He's
just taken excited about pineapples, as are we. Well, yes, yes,
you can relate. I can. I can't. I do have
a friend who is growing his own pineapple and I'm
(11:02):
kind of jealous and I keep asking for He's like,
stop bothering me about this pineapple business, and I'm but
it's for sen And we did see some two super cute,
tiny little pineapples, baby pineapples, but they're like fronds, were
big fronds pine pineapples. Yes, it was pretty rad. Oh,
(11:26):
but if you're ever in the store and you don't
have this guy, and you're wondering, how the heck do
I pick out a good pineapple? Never fear. You want
to look for one that has a green leaves and
a firm body. Um. Unlike most fruits, pineapples don't ripen
more once they've been picked, because they draw their sweetness
from there from their starch base um. Generally, though, the
sooner you eat them, the better, And if you cut
(11:47):
it up stored in the fridge. Yes, yeah. Nutrition wise, pineapple,
especially when fresh, is pretty healthy. It's high in vitamin
C and manganese, which helps out your immune system and
bone strength. Among loads of other things. It does have
fructose though, so you know, remember relative moderation. Yeah. Oh,
the aforementioned bromelin um, that enzyme found in pineapple um
(12:09):
can be used as a meat tenderizer and a cut
fruit preserver um, and sometimes use as an anti inflammatory.
There aren't any studies that conclusively show that this works,
but researchers are looking into that and into bromlin's potential
cancer fighting properties. Yeah. I do find pineapple is the
source of a lot of health trends, you know, dieting trends.
(12:35):
So always, as always, we recommend uh doct professionals because
that's not us represent bodies are complicated, yes, but if
you like pineapple, eat it. Yeah. Um. However, however, unripe
pineapple is toxic um. And eating a lot of pineapple
(12:56):
cores um, I mean they're they're edible, but they're so
fie brisks that it can apparently lead to the formation
of fiber balls in the digestive tract, which does not
sound I don't think you want those, I very much
don't want, no, thank you. But speaking of fiber, fibers
from the leaves are woven into embroidery, thread cloth, and
(13:18):
paper in places like Brazil and the Philippines. Cool, We
do have some numbers for you. Despite their association with Hawaii,
they are not native to Hawaii, nor is Hawaii the
top producer anymore. At least, the top producers of pineapple
where Costa Rica, Brazil, and the Philippines, with total worldwide
production equaling twenty five point four million tons. Behind apple
(13:41):
sauce and peaches, pineapple is the most canned fruit huh. Indeed,
and behind the Pearl Harbor bombing site, the Dull Pineapple
Plantation is the most visited tourist attraction in Hawaii. Currently,
Hawaii produces less than one per cent of the world's
crop of pineapples. While we were there, we didn't visit
Doll Nope. But we did go to a distillery, Holly
(14:05):
Emale Distillery tour and tasting room on Maui. But yeah,
they use fermented pineapple as the base of their neutral spirit,
from which they produced vodka's, runs, whiskeys, other stuff, which
means that I got to have at least one pineapple
product while we were on the island. Yes, uh, yeah,
they opened up shop on one of the former commercial
pineapple plantations on Mauie um one that was growing a
(14:28):
varietal called empty one um, known to the public as
the trademarked Mauie gold um, which is bred to be
even sweeter still than the m D two um, so
it has a lot of sugar for the yeast to
act on. The fermentation room in there smelled so good.
I love the smell of any fermentation room because I'm
kind of a weird nerd. But um, but man, that
(14:51):
always just so like fresh and bright and musky. Yeah,
it was really invigorating. Almost. Yeah. And one thing we
heard from a lot of people. I actually have a
lot of friends who asked me for this was the
pineapple as a souvenir pineapple home. I did not do
that for I did a whole joke thing where I
got it, like I got your pineapple. But I had
(15:11):
these little pineapple gummies because I'm a terrible friend. They
were big and expensive, and we had a poster to handle.
We did have a very big poster about fishing and
sustainability of why that we were in charge of. And
that was enough. That was enough. Um. If we're looking
at money, as pineapples were a nine billion dollar industry
(15:34):
the US imports one point one seven million tons of
pineapples as seen in the US. Easter is the number
one retail week for pineapples. Huh. Yeah, I wonder if
it's like pineapples on like an easter ham like doing
or like if there's yeah, some kind of what what
other pineapple? If if y'all use pineapple in your easter
(15:56):
cooking right in and let us know, yes, please do?
Oh gosh, and like cauliflower, this is another example of
the golden spiral in nature. Yeah, the plants, leaves and
berries grow in numbers in the Fibonacci sequence. Um. So,
like if you look at the segments on a pineapple,
you'll see that they form spirals around the plant, a
(16:18):
double helices of spirals actually, meaning they interweave cross ways. Um.
And yeah, it's just extremely likely that if you count
the number of segments in each spiral, the number will
be thirteen or twenty one. Wow, um, which are two
adjacent numbers in the Fibonacci sequence. Uh. That the golden
spiral is also constructed from the sequence. It goes one, one, two, three, five, eight, one,
(16:45):
et cetera, um, with each new number being the sum
of the two previous numbers, and lots of plants grow
seeds and petals and leaves in the sequence, and it's
why four leaf clovers are so rare because their genetically
anomaly from the typical three. Oh cool. Yeah, there's something
very calmon about reading numbers unless it's a number station,
unless right, unless it's in lost, and then it's very specifically.
(17:11):
Pineapple is used in all kinds of things, cocktails, fruit salads,
a key ingredient in some versions of my ambrogio, like
mine on Hawaiian pizza in stur Fries, tacos alpastor, and
it shows up in all kinds of pop culture. I
remember after we did this, it was the Oscar nominated movie.
(17:32):
A lot of people wrote in I think it was
the favorite. Had a scene with the pineapple. Yeah, I
think it was that SpongeBob. Obviously it's in the theme song.
Very important in a student in Scotland left a pineapple
at an art exhibit, hoping it would be mistaken for art,
and sure enough four days later when he came back
(17:54):
there with a class case around the pineapple. This is
one of my favorite most heartwarming stories me too, of
all time. I love it. I love it. And you know,
now in the context of that piece that was just
sold with the banana taped to the wall, and it
was called starving artists and artist ate the banana after
it sold for like two hundred thousand dollars. Yeah, so
(18:14):
this he was a trendsetter. He or she who ever
left this pineapple. I love that. That's great. Um. There's
also tiki culture, which we'll talk about a little bit
later on. We have yet to do a whole episode
about all the kitchen nostalgia and appropriation and other weirdness
that goes into all this, but tiki is definitely in
the midst of a resurgence. It is, indeed, and pineapples
(18:36):
also show up for other reasons, historical reasons, and we'll
get into some of those after we get back from
a quick break for a word from our sponsor, and
we're back. Thank you, sponsor, Yes, thank you, And we're
back with so much history, so much great history. I'm
(18:59):
telling you, this is one of my favorite. So many
interesting facts in this one, but let's get into it. Yes,
pineapples originated in South America, most likely in Brazil or Paraguay.
They were domesticated, possibly as far back as six thousand
years ago, possibly by the Tupi and or Garani people,
(19:20):
and spread throughout the continent from there into Central America,
Mexico and the West Indies. Local cultivators called it nana
are excellent fruit. I've also seen this meaning listed as
perfumed um. But either way, yeah, that's where we get
that scientific name ananas comosis. Yeah, that one, yes. And
also ananas is a character in our D and D campaign.
(19:42):
And she looks like a pineapple. I laughed and laughed
when she showed up, and everyone was like wise, is
so funny. And I told them, probably too much about pineapples.
I don't think so that. You can never say enough
about pineapples, especially at the D and D table where else.
In addition to being eaten raw or cooked, pineapple juice
was also fermented to make wine and liquors. It was,
(20:06):
and in some region still is also used medicinally due
to that bromelin content for a bunch of things. That's
a cure for gas row, intestinal parasites, and other stomach problems,
to cure skin problems like corns and worts, to stimulate
minschell flow, and to induce abortion and non edible cultivars
were grown for the strong fiber in their leaves, which
was woven to make stuff like clothing, hammocks, and fishing nets.
(20:30):
In four Christopher Columbus that guy Yep stumbled upon the
pineapple when he stopped on Guadaloupe, and he called it
Pinada Indies or pine of the Indians. In his journal,
he described it as resembling a pine cone, but also
as a sweet fruit with an apple's firmness. Yeah, he
returned to Spain with some pineapples, where they were a
(20:52):
huge hit. People really liked how sweet they were. When
people try to grow their pineapples in Europe, or more
particularly in England, they found little to no success due
to the non tropical weather for this very tropical plants.
Holland did have some success, however, and Dutchman Peter the
like court ven der Vorts is credited with growing the
(21:15):
first pineapple in Europe in sixteen eight. So Europeans had
to import pineapples, which was extremely time consuming and expensive,
and the fruit often arrived bruised and or rotten. Yeah,
they can't survive. Frost is the thing they do best
in temperatures like above sixty five degrees fahrenheit or eighteen celsius,
so pretty warm. Yeah. Magellan also got in the pineapple
(21:37):
game after he found them in Brazil in fifteen nineteen,
which increased the import of pineapples into Europe. They often
arrived candied or covered in syrup, since yeah that the
transport of it of the fruit was so difficult. During
the fifteen and sixteen hundred, Spain and Portugal introduced the
pineapple to places like Hawaii, possibly wom the Philippines, Zimbabwe
(21:58):
fifty in India if ateen ninety four, in China in
sixteen fifty five, and South Africa. Meanwhile, the word pineapple
first appeared in print around this time in sixteen sixty four,
and it got its name thanks to the resemblance to
a pine cone. Previously, pineapple was used to describe pine cones,
a word that also popped up in text for the
first time in sixteen sixty four. Due to the high
(22:19):
cost of refined sugar, the low availability of sweets, and
pineapple's rarity, it quickly became a symbol of wealth. King
Charles the Second commissioned a painting of him receiving a
pineapple from his gardener as a display of his his
royalty and wealthy sude. I love it. Paint a picture
(22:40):
of me getting this pineapple. Please, because I'm important enough
to get pineapples and I want everyone to know it.
We should. How much would it cost for us to
commission a painting of similar I mean, we already have
those photos of us holding pineapples, but it's not the same. Yeah,
we need to do the whole thing. We'll look into this.
Royals often gave pineapples as gifts when we're looking to
(23:00):
impress someone. In seventeen hundred Colonial America, perishable and rare
pineapples imported from the Caribbean islands could cost as much
as eight thousand dollars what into days money? Eight thousand yes,
for a pineapple. One pineapple, Oh gosh, eight thousand dollars.
(23:22):
At the time, most entertaining went on inside people's houses
at things like dinner parties, and when well off colonists
wanted to show off, they would display a pineapple at
these dinner parties. Eight thousand bucks for a display pineapple.
Their main use was decoration, and I guess to make
people feel worse about themselves, are better about you? I
(23:43):
don't know. They would only eat them once the pineapples
start to go bad. Yes, and perhaps because of this,
pineapples came to symbolize hospitality. More on that in a minute.
But okay, what about those poor souls like you and
I who perhaps afford to purchase outright a pineapple? Yes,
(24:03):
there was a system ready for you if you couldn't
afford a pineapple. There was a rental market you could
go to. Yes, enterprising pineapple sellers or bakers who use
pineapples in their desserts. And also, we're pretty in the
loop about local dinner parties would rent out pineapples before
(24:24):
selling them, and people would carry them around it parties
a pineapple. This is one of my favorite facts ever.
I want to bring it back. Just imagine you're at
a party and a bunch of people are carrying pineapples,
and I'm imagining you don't mention it, you know, sure, yeah, yeah, yeah,
(24:44):
because everyone is just so impressed. But it's probably like
rude to like really point it out. Yeah, and you
gotta hold it kind of yeah, well, I mean due
to aforementioned photo shoot. Like those things are not comfortable too,
and they're kind of heavy, they are, Yeah, and spiky.
That's why I love it so much. Yeah. Ultimately, though,
fashion is about that. It's about how much pain you're
(25:06):
willing to put in for for a look. Yeah yeah, deep, Well, well,
I you know, yeah, let's you know. We are the
music makers, we are the dreamers of the pineapples. We
can we can make this happen. Okay, our next work party,
let's coordinate. Okay, alright, some pineapples. All right, I'm gonna
(25:29):
like shave off the spiky bits. Yeah, that's true. We
can be we can be enterprising in our own way
about those, Okay. Okay. Meanwhile, George Washington named it his
favorite tropical fruit after trying it in Barbados in one
and yes it is. Around this time in the seventeen sixties,
at the pineapple as a symbol of friendship and hospitality
(25:52):
became super trendy. They were on napkins, tablecloths, wallpaper, bedposts,
pineapple shaped dishes on the gate post outside residences, on
the backs of chairs, on weather veins of important public buildings,
pineapple shaped candelaberas, and pictures door knockers. In the Caribbean,
you put a pineapple or pineapple crown outside your door
to represent friendship what they were everywhere, and you can
(26:16):
still see evidence of it to this day. In fact,
since we've done this episode, I see this all the time,
all the time, and I hear they're pretty prevalent in
colonial Williamsburg. I believe the first time we did this episode,
listeners road in and confirmed that they are. There is
even a huge pineapple shaped bit of architecture in Dunmore Park, Scotland,
(26:37):
built in seventeen sixty one. The building that this pineapple
tops originally contained a hothouse and we very highly recommend
you look it up because it is a thing of beauty.
It is majestic, yes, but that's not all foods were
pressed into pineapple shapes. Non pineapple foods into pineapple shapes,
pineapple shaped cakes, cookies, candies, gelatin mole um. But that
(27:01):
didn't fit the alliteration. Yeah, we love we love some
in alliteration around here. All the while, your patent given
up on growing their own pineapples, and with the advent
of the hot house in the seventeenth century, pineapples could
be grown more widely in Europe. The first recorded instance
of pineapple hot houses dates back to two belonging to
(27:23):
the Duchess of Cleveland, from which she gifted a pineapple
to King Charles. The second, which is how that aforementioned
painting came about. I love it, but yeah, even with
hot houses, pineapples couldn't be produced on a large scale,
and the cost was still high due to all of
the equipment and labor that was required. Like so high
in fact, that just owning one of these hot houses
(27:46):
meant for pineapples. They were called pine earis or pineapple stoves.
By the way, um, just having one of these hot
houses became a symbol for wealth along with the physical pineapple. Yes,
the hot house symbol of wealth, the pineapple inside the
hot house. Even more, some they do look like a crown.
They do look majestic, they do. I can see it sure.
(28:09):
Allegedly in seventeen seventy nine, the pineapple was even used
in political discourse, with an egalitarian dissenter saying water right,
has one man to eat a pineapple for which he
gave a guinea when another is starving for want of
a halfpenny worth of bread, with his opponent's response being
how many depend for their share of the guinea paid
(28:29):
for the pineapple? When you shall have divided the guineas
between all of these. I think that gentlemen might eat
with a good conscience. Oh snap, I think so. It
sounds like a snap. It sounds like a snap. I
guess sure, like I could tell. That's actually a deep
question for another day. It is right, uh. In the
(28:52):
seventeen seventies, British captain James Cook may have planted pineapples
on various islands around the South Pacific. Most of the
accounts of how the pineapple made it to Hawaii are
probably apocryphal. One popular story puts pineapples on the islands
in the seventeen nineties, introduced there by Spanish horticulturist Francisco
at the Polo Marian. For a period, he served as
(29:14):
the interpreter for Kingo the First, while simultaneously experimenting was
introducing a bunch of species of plants on the islands.
His records are the first written mention of pineapple on
the islands. Quote, this day I planted pineapples and an
orange tree. Um. Some stories say that the aforementioned James
Cook brought pineapples with him in seventeen seventy eight, but
(29:36):
others say that he found them already growing there. History's mysteries. Indeed,
at any rate, pineapples were growing in the wild and
in people's gardens in Hawaii by the time American missionaries
arrived in eighteen twenty. Lutheran missionaries introduced the pineapple to
Australia in the eighteen thirties, where it still grows. As
ship speed technology improved throughout the eighteen hundreds, with cutter
(29:57):
ships and steam ships, pineapples were imported the Caribbean and
Central America to wealthy folks in New York City. There
was an attempt to grow them in the United States
to avoid these high shipping costs. Um They were grown
poorly in Texas and California, and then a little bit
better in Florida, starting in eighteen sixty in the Keys
and most successfully in a belt along South Florida's east
(30:21):
coast um stretching from Fort Pierce down to Miami through
the early twentieth century, but the plantations there wore out
the soil, and that plus South Florida's tendency to occasionally
experience frost, wiped out the crop. Yes, Also around the
eighteen sixties, pineapple from the Bahamas and Cuba was canned
in Baltimore, the canning center of America. Seriously, it was
(30:43):
really new and expensive technology. But the pineapples cand around
that time were picked green, which yellowed over time but
didn't actually ripen further and therefore weren't as tasty as
a real ripe. Pineapple. Technicians in Baltimore developed the machines
that core and sliced pineapple into the familiar rings. And
this brings us to one of those companies named for
(31:05):
a single dude, Dole. But first it brings us to
a word from our sponsor, and we're back, Thank you, sponsor. Yes,
thank you, and we're back with more history. Yes and
(31:26):
yes Dole. Okay. By this time, in the mid eighteen hundreds,
California was in the midst of a gold rush and
was importing so much pineapple from Hawaii, and this, along
with sugarcane, spurred the many waves of immigrants that came
to Hawaii and helped make the islands cultures what they
are today. European and American business humans found that they
(31:47):
needed laborers to replace the native population, which had been
rapidly dwindling due to introduced disease and other issues. Um
the indigenous population dropped from around three thousand when Cook
arrived in seventy to about seventy thousand by eighteen fifty three,
which is around when the first wave of Chinese immigrants
began arriving. But pineapple still didn't really take to the
(32:07):
journey overseas and frequently rotted along the way. English horticulturists
and Captain John Kidwell got the idea to can pineapple
and wine sell it in eighteen eighty two, though he
wasn't the first, and this was after he'd conducted several
experiments to find the best pineapple cultivar. Smooth Cayen was
the winner. Yeah, without Kidwell, the pineapple might never have
become as a globally popular or available as it did.
(32:31):
And you can check out stuff emins in history class.
They have a whole episode on the story they do.
But the U S tariff on imported fruits and exorbitant
shipping costs made it pretty much impossible for Kidwell to
make a profit and he shut down in which was
too bad for him because later that same year, the
Hawaiian Kingdom was annexed by the US after the Spanish
American War and the tariff was lifted. As we said
(32:53):
in our intro to Oahu episode, mostly white European and
American businessman, especially in the burgeoning and potentially massively lucrative
sugarcane and pineapple industries on the island, did not want
to have to deal with the Hawaiian monarchy, so they
pressured the king to sign the Bannet Agreement. In seven
a new constitution signed at gunpoint, and this essentially allowed
(33:15):
only those of certain ethnicities, mostly white people, of a
certain wealth, mostly rich people, to vote and drastically diminished
the power of the native monarchy. When Queen Liliuokalani came
to power, she attempted to replace this constitution with her own,
which didn't sit well with the businessmen benefiting from the
constitution that they had forcibly instituted. The aid of the U. S. Government,
(33:37):
Sanford Dole, cousin of James Dole, led a coup against
the queen. Faced with the U. S. Militia, the queen surrendered.
Sanford Dole meanwhile was appointed President of the Republic of Hawaii.
Oh yeah, it is a really intense, fascinating, tragic story. Pineapples,
or rather the agriculture barons who controlled the pineapple plantations,
(33:58):
you know, not the fruit themselves had a direct hand
in overthrowing the Hawaiian monarchy. Um as US commercial interest
in local farmland increased YEP. With Kidwell's pineapple research and
canning equipment in place, the industry was easy enough to restart,
and in nineteen hundred Jim Dole, who was twenty two
years old and knew nothing about cannony, bought up sixty
(34:19):
ago on acres of land four growing pineapples during a
homestead expanse program in the newly annexed Republic of Hawaii.
Dole established the Hawaiian Pineapple Company in nineteen o one,
and by nineteen o three the company had produced cases
of pineapple lots of nineteens. Despite having been called by
the local press a fool hardy avenger hole. They were
very incorrect. That would be such a great review. Fools
(34:43):
I like savor A fool I like it u at
this time, I mean they could be forgiven for thinking
this because at this time sugarcane was king in Hawaii.
UM though um some of the Japanese immigrants who had
been out to the islands as in ventured laborers um
kind of knew what was up. They they moved from
(35:05):
sugarcane to the relatively more flexible pineapple industry once their
term was up in nineteen o eight, about seven point
five percent of lands occupied by pineapple were run by
folks of Japanese descent. But part of pineapple's eventual success
was just luck because sugarcane doesn't do as well at
(35:26):
high elevations, so that land was the land that was
given over to the homesteaders and their pineapples. Um. Yeah,
pineapples thrive at high elevations, yes, but the pineapple still
wasn't the easiest crop, and Dole operated at a loss
for several years in the beginning, which he could weather
due to his excellent connections. Dole was very proactive in
(35:46):
pushing from new technologies, and in nineteen thirteen this led
to the invention of the Ganaka machine by Dole employee
Henry Ganaka. This machine could remove the skin, core, and
ends of pineapple in less than thirty seconds. In nineteen eighteen,
Doll produced one million cans of pineapple, and a slightly
improved goo knocka machine is still used to this day. Yeah.
(36:09):
Dole was also really good at marketing his product. Yeah.
After a market crash in seven, Dolls Company and six
other pineapple growers formed up into the Hawaiian Pineapple Growers
Association UM, and they mounted the very first generic product
ad campaign in the United States food processing industry. No
one had ever just been like pineapples eat them before.
(36:32):
It was always like this brand eats that specific right sure,
yeah UM, And it worked and was soon copied by
lots of other industries. By nineteen twenty, as the industry
shifted and consolidated, almost eighty eight percent of the small
pineapple farms were Japanese run. These were largely bought out
by the big companies. Over the next few decades, like Dole,
(36:52):
by his business had taken off, and by Dole was
packing more pineapple than anyone else in the business. The
pineapple was Hawaii's biggest industry. And I remember when we
interviewed Hawaiian Senator Donovan Della Cruz, he said pineapple juice
ran in his veins. I think partially because he ate
so much as a good but but but mostly because
(37:13):
he grew up surrounded by the industry, including his family
having worked in it for two generations. During the nineteen twenties,
eating pineapple was perceived as a bit of a fad,
spawning culinary trends like the pineapple upside down cake, pineapple
upside down cake um and this was probably also partially
due to UM the boom in air freight in the
(37:34):
nineteen twenties, which made shipping much quicker and easier, though
it wouldn't become fully widespread until after World War Two.
The industry took a hit during the Great Depression which
started It got so bad that James Dole was forced
to resign as president of the Hawaiian Pineapple Company in
nineteen thirty two. However, the Hawaiian Pineapple Company's development of
(37:55):
technology to produce high quality canned pineapple juice in e
would help make up for some of those losses. Juice
sales surged over the next couple of decades, and that
boom of pineapple juice sales in UH in the nineteen
thirties may have had to do with prohibition ending that
year and with the rise of tiki bar culture starting
(38:16):
in ninety four, because that's when Don Beach born Ernest
Raymond Beaumont Gant returned from room running in the South
Pacific and opened Don's Beachcomer Cafe in California, which became
the its spot for Hollywood Royalty, and UM started a
fad for all things vaguely and or offensively Polynesian themed
UM that would stretch through the early nineteen seventies and
(38:38):
employ a large number of pineapples. Yes, Yes, can hear
more about that in our My Entai episode? Absolutely yeah.
Though Doll is the most profitable accounting for pineapples for
the next seven decades. By the nineteen fifties, eight other
companies had taken note from Doll's success and set up
shop in Hawaii. A series of reords and consolidations helped
(39:01):
Doll along. Yes. After World War Two, the pineapple industry
spread to places like Thailand and the Philippines, where the
labor costs were way lower, like nine tents lower. Um
Yeah yeah, exploitation of overseas populations with fewer labor laws.
Yeah yeah, but okay. So as a result, the Hawaiian
(39:23):
pineapple industry saw significant decline by the nineteen sixties, leading
to lots more consolidations. Those finally ended in the company
becoming Doll in nine But despite attempts to innovate around
canning and shipping a fresher product. Doll's Cannery and Honolulu
closed in and del Monte left Hawaii in two eight.
(39:45):
Most pineapple production in Hawaii today is to satisfy local demand.
UM and cuisines on the islands still regularly feature pineapple. Yes,
you kind of a joke that it came up at
least three times where it's when we were interviewing with say,
you put pineapple on something, and people immediately assume it's
Hawaiian and nut's not true and that's not how we eat.
(40:07):
Although although Andrew did have a pizza that had that
had a colo pig and arugula and some kind of
barbecue marinary base and pineapple and it was good. It
was delicious. Yeah, that was it. That was at Moku.
Everything there was delicious. And yeah. That brings us to
(40:30):
today more or less and to an important discussion that
we have to have here, which is the environmental impact
of commercial pineapple production. So UM, the problems created by
growing pineapple commercially all revolve around the fact that it's
easiest to grow as a monoculture, meaning that you wipe
(40:50):
out everything else and just grow that For acres and
acres and akers um, and if the industry collapses as
it did on Hawaii, it's difficult to switch over those
field to supporting other crops because pineapple doesn't need as much,
if any, irrigation, so you have to create a whole
new infrastructure. Um. We've mentioned Senator Dela Cruz a couple
(41:10):
of times in this episode, and he started our interview
with him unprompted, talking about this issue. So, I'm Donovan
Dela Cruz Aloha. I'm in the State Senate. I've been
in the State Senate since two thousand ten, and I
represent Central Oahu which is Waihiwa Milani Malka and it
(41:31):
it's we're all. We're doll first started. So when I
grew up, there were seven thousand acres of pineapple land
and Central o Wahu. What was it like growing up
with with that, with that weird culture. So it was
it was a norm for us. I mean, we saw
pine My grandparents came from the Philippines to pick pineapple.
(41:52):
My dad worked on in the field during the summer
when he was growing up. So it's it's difficult to
see that Hawaii hasn't really transitioned into a a much
larger diversified agricultural society from pineapple and sugar. And so,
I mean, I think there's potential, there's some land that
(42:13):
has been lost because of development. But it's not that
easy just taking pineapple land and turning him into the
versified egg because pineapple requires a different kind of infrastructure. Um,
what are some of the projects and initiatives that you
do a lot of work in environmental and agricultural policy.
What are some of the projects you're working on right now?
(42:34):
So every since I got to the Senate, and before
I was in the Senate, I was on the Hole
City Council. So when I was on the council, the
city dedicated funds to purchase some egg land in partnership
with the state and the army. So we bought abouts
of egg land that was once del Monty Land, the
(42:55):
Monty Pineapple which is right next to the do Land.
And we actually finalize that purchase in two thousand twelve,
even though we budgetated for it in two thousand eight,
so it took four years. And since then I've added
more and more money to the budget, and so now
we're at about pineapple land now in the state's ownership.
(43:18):
But we also have to put in money for water infrastructure.
So once we just we have the land, that doesn't
mean they can farment right away. So we got because
pineapple didn't need water. It was a familiad rain candle
by and so now when you do diversified egg you
have to put money in for water infrastructure. So we're
looking at a variety of solutions. One solution is actually
(43:40):
recycling water that is in a nearby lake. So yeah,
there are things that can be done to help agriculture
recover from this kind of farming practice, but that's for
areas that are moving on from pineapple. Another thing about
mono cropping is that it means eliminating all other ants
(44:00):
in the area with herbicides. Bugs and molds are a
problem too, so add pesticides and fungicides to the mix.
In the final product, you know, your your final pineapple.
These substances come through as legally allowable residues, but they
can be disastrous to the local humans and the whole ecosystem.
And this is why the pineapple is one of those
(44:20):
stories of a lack of corporate concern for environmental and
worker conditions in the face of expanding profits. Those chemicals
used on pineapples in their largest supplying country at Costa
Rica are in fact illegal to who's in Europe and
other parts of the world due to their links to cancer,
hormone disruption, and other chronic illnesses in local populations, and
(44:42):
as of two thousand seven, the Costa Rican government had
to start importing water in tankers because the groundwater was
deemed unsafe and the worker conditions UM Again in Costa Rica,
there have been reports of undocumented immigrants from Nicaragua filling
upwards of six of the pineapple plantation jobs. You know,
the labor is hard and the conditions are dangerous due
(45:03):
to chemical exposure, but as the immigrants aren't citizens, they
can't participate in local unions and other efforts to assert
worker rights. Similar things have gone on in the Philippines,
particularly on dull plantations, and in Costa Rica, citizens who
have fought for better conditions have sometimes met with forceful
resistance UM, mass firings and even rehirings with poorer contracts
(45:26):
that exclude union members and UM, and even threats UM
suspected beatings in arson. So that's not no UM, but
you can do stuff to help buy fair trade certified
fruit if you can find it. UM. Crops with that
labeling are more likely to have been growning conditions that
(45:46):
prevent the need for heavy chemical use through practices like
prop rotation. UM. And this is where some folks would
also recommend buying organic. That's the term that honestly doesn't
have a strong enough legal meaning here in the United States.
To make for sure in packed, we'll have to do
a whole other depressive episode of that. We've been kind
of avoiding it. I mean, if it makes you feel
(46:07):
better by organic, yeah, yeah. Um. Agriculture is well complicated, y'all,
very much, is it is? And a lot of the
laws around it also very complicated. Yep, yep, yep. We've
had the pleasure of discussing some of those laws in
this episode and in most of our episodes, learning so
much legal scholars that's what we are. Oh, absolutely, you
(46:30):
can tell. I'm sure comes through. Well, that's a lot
to say about the pineapple, yes, but all of it
is really fascinating, weird important stuff. Yes, and it's I
just gotta go get one and carried around. Gosh, what
(46:51):
a beautiful, beautiful, weird thing. People are so fascinating. I say,
I say, brig into your to your New Year's party. Yes,
hello twenties, I brought a pineapple. Oh, thank you, Loyd.
You're very welcome, and you know what, thanks to to
(47:12):
the listeners for checking out this our first of a redux. Yeah. Yeah,
and we hope that you have wonderful holidays. Whatever you
celebrate or don't celebrate, just relax, be safe, be happy.
If you like carry a pineapple around, please totally carry pineapple.
Take a picture, send it in. We need we need
(47:34):
your your hot pineapple stylens. Yes, the hot stylence of
the pineapple. They are very I noticed they're on a
lot of clothing. Yeah, and since I've come out with
my love of pineapples, I've got like a little purse
and another little purse and shirt with them on it,
coat with them on it, there, the whole thing. So
(47:55):
so there you go. Yes, if you would like to
email us your your pictures of pine apples and you
probably carrying them around, you can. Our email is hello
at favor pod dot com. We're also on social media.
You can you can tag us uh in your pineapple pictures. There.
We're at savor pod on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, and
we do hope to hear from you. Savor is a
(48:16):
production of I Heart Radio and Stuff Media. For more
podcasts from my heart Radio, you can visit the iHeart
Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows. Thanks as always to our super producers Dylan
Fagan and Andrew Howard. Thanks to you for listening, and
we hope that lots more good things are coming your way.
Hello, and welcome Savor Production of I Heart Radio and
Stuff Media. I'm Anny Rees and I'm Lauren Local Bam
and today we're doing a redo of Pineapple Pineapple again
to more pineapple sort of. It's a it's a two
point oh because we did go to Hawaii, which you
(00:27):
might know, that's a lot of stuff about pineapple, a
lot of pineapple involved in their history. And yeah, we
kind of have more to say about pineapple. We do. Um,
we were just going to do it as a as
a classic and at a little bit of new info
at the top. But yeah, this was also I was
I started to listen to it, and this was just
such a super early episode and I thought that that
(00:48):
we could just do it better justice. It's one of
my favorites. I mean, you know, pineapple is one of
your favorites, isn't it. Yes, also that, but also the
history of this one fascinating. Oh yeah, oh my gosh. Um,
and I mean for furthermore. Yeah, like basically everyone that
we spoke with in Hawaii, uh talked about pineapple. Yeah.
(01:11):
It was one of those things where in the back
of my mind at least I kept thinking, wow, well
we've already done pineapple, but they're all talking about pineapple.
Maybe we should revisit pineapple. Always want to revisit pineapple. Sure, yes,
yes it's not it's not good for me, but it's
one of those things that I can't eat. Um do
(01:32):
do possibly to its enzyme bromelin, which which listener Aaron
hipped us to in the way back. Still need to
check on that. Apparently apparently bromlin is is broken down
by heat, which means it Canned pineapple and canned pineapple
juice are okay for some folks with a pineapple intolerance
because the canning involves heating. Um. I honestly have not
had a day yet where I was like, you know,
(01:54):
I really feel like testing this out. That's fair that
that's a very specific day where you probably need the
whole day. Yeah alone. Yeah, not a lot going on
right nowhere to be lots of ginger just in case.
Yeah yeah, maybe one day but maybe not, maybe not,
(02:18):
but yeah, so so many of our interviewees brought it up.
Taylor Kellerman actually got his start in pineapple. He was
our buddy from Coolo a ranch Um and the Cohana Distilleries,
sugarcane fields and agricole um production all happened on what
used to be a pineapple plantation, the one that Taylor
used to work on in fact, and we can we
(02:39):
can run a quote here if we want to. Do
you guys want to I always want to quote. So
all of the land that we're gonna walk on today
is going to be old Dolmante land. So it started
off as sugarcane back in eighteen probably seventy, maybe a
touch earlier than that. Del Monte had all of this
(03:01):
land down this corridor. Now it's divided up amongst some
small plot farmers and frankly a few big guys too.
Um but Delmonte has they dug out about ten years ago.
It was really big news. It's really expensive to farm
in Hawaii. Growing pineapples and the Philippines seemed like a
better idea. And the sugar industry is dead here as well.
(03:22):
The last milk closed in So when you think commodity
production in the world, Hawaii is not the place to
do it. Expensive labor, expensive land, and you have to
ship everything. So it's kind of a weird thing that
it ever worked, even for a little bit that was
(03:44):
not Taylor. But but Kyle Rittner from the Cohana Distillery
that you just heard, uh yeah, And Senator Donovan Dela
Cruz even said that he was inspired to make agricultural
policy one of his main prod checks like as a
government servant because of the pineapple industry. Um, but more
(04:04):
on that later. Yeah, it was just everywhere, the kind
of ghost of pineapples past and its power that it
once held in Hawaii everywhere. Yeah. I'm also you consumed
it a lot through through many cocktails and Dylan and Andrew. Um,
there was let's see, there was that one at the
(04:25):
Harry's Hardware Emporium that elevated slushyah. Oh and the Royal Hawaiian,
the super Fancy my tie, Yes, that was good. And
the one we talked about in our Lily Coy episode.
I don't think I had pineapple in it, but it
came with a very because you had to get one
without the big garnish. Yeah, because it had this beautiful
pineapple wedge. And I had some fresh pineapple at a
(04:49):
farmer's market to oh my god, Oh my god, I'm
really jealousy. This is one of my biggest because I
know you have a lot of things that you can't
really eat. This is the one that really hurts. I
feel pain for you because it's so good. It's all right,
(05:10):
I can I can smell it. Well, okay, I appreciate
the silver linings of it. I don't think it's the same,
but I I appreciate what you're trying to do. I
thank thank you. I you're welcome. Um, do just bring
us to our question. I suppose it does. Pineapple? What
(05:35):
is it? Well, a pineapple is the fruit of a
plant by the botanical name a nanas comosis. I think
I'm saying that right. Every pineapple is actually made up
of dozens of individual fruits that have grown and smushed
up together into a hole. The plant has long, spiky
green leaves circling a single stem, and that stem will
(05:56):
put off ahead of a tiny red or purple flowers
which each developed into these fruits. And yeah, that's what
All the segments or like eyes on the fruit are
evidence of those individual berries that grow from the individual
flowers on the plants. A single central stem which which
becomes the core of the fruit very cool, and the
(06:17):
rind of the resulting fruit. Um, it's called multiple fruit.
Perhaps obvious reasons um. The rind is stiff and waxy UM,
with a small spike on each segment, and that's the
butt end of each flower um, plus a specialized leaf
called a bract. That's the little spiky bit. Yeah. Um. Also,
the stem will grow a tuft of shorter green leaves
(06:37):
at its top, forming the crown of the fruit. And yeah,
the whole plant can grow uh like one and a
half meters tall about about five feet so yes. The
result is an oblong fruit with an inedible rind that's
anywhere from green to yellow to orange to reddish. When
it's ripe UM, often a combination of a couple of
those will appear in each little segment, and the flesh
inside can range in color from yellow to white, with
(06:59):
a juicy, stringy segments surrounding a firmer and stringier core.
The flavor is is bright to the point of almost
sharpness um and tropical um, and can range from sort
of like puckery to super sweet. Yes. Kind of has
a nice burn, yeah, like in the best way, the
best kind of burn. Yeah. I like a good burn,
(07:22):
me too. I've got around the same page there, um,
but you've probably only had one type of pineapple and
that is the m D two cultivar, which is a
hybrid that was developed to preserve the sweetness while lowering
the acidity and preventing browning, which was a problem for UM.
The previously most popular fresh pineapple type called smooth Cayenne.
(07:43):
I love that name. Smooth kay. That should be a
band name. If it isn't already, somebody do it, get
on it. Um smooth smooth cayne makes up more than
of the m D two hybrid. But um, Yeah, there
are lots and lots and lots of varieties, some of
which I think you can only find on Hawaii. Yes,
And that is one of my biggest regrets is that
(08:05):
we didn't I know, there's a place that you can go,
and I think it was varieties. It was several, several
that you could try. And this was kind of news
to me that some pineapple they were all these different
types and I could only get them in this one place,
and we didn't go. We didn't get around to it.
Oh no, well we just have to go back. I mean,
(08:26):
that's okay, Okay, that's sure. No manage pineapple harvesting still
has to be done largely by hand, and it takes
about two years for pineapple to grow to peturity. Um
harvesters walk through the crop in these thick suits to
protect themselves from the spiky leaves, and once the crop
is harvested, the field will be nucked down to make
(08:48):
way for the new growing cycle. Oh m hmm, the
kind we eat our Seedless you grow new pineapple by
rooting a piece of an existing plant. To form the seed,
you would need pollination and um how birds are the
most frequent pollinators. However, seed formation isn't great for the
quality of the fruit, which is why Hawaii prohibits the
importation of hummingbirds. No hummingbirds, no hummed to keep them
(09:11):
out those Someone else finally said it, Annie Reese doesn't
really like dogs, doesn't like hummingbirds. I am a people
pleaser all around. Also, I got some negative thoughts on
baby Yoda. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. Don't don't
come at me. I've already experienced it before. Don't do it.
(09:36):
Oh heck, that that would be serious. I'm like, okay, Like,
dogs are slobberry like I get if you, I don't know,
like you might be allergic to them. But baby Yoda
is good and pure and perfect. You're right, I shouldn't
have even joked about such a thing. I've learned a
valuable lesson here. Huh. Pineapples, though are, are apparently easy
(09:58):
to grow on your own. You just take the crown
from the plant of one that you you know, have
presumably eaten, but put the crown somewhere dry and dark
for a week so it'll harden. And then in an
eight inch porous pot with good drainage, not bad drainage,
lay down a layer gravel than light, layer soil, composted material,
and huala, let it grow. I want it starts to grow,
(10:20):
you want to transplant it to a to a bigger
pot with the same conditions. But I know this partially
because there's this nice fellow who sometimes hangs out in
a local farmers market, your decab farmer's market, near the pineapples,
and talks to people buying the fruit about how to
grow pineapples. He's like, did you know that you can
just grow your own pineapple? You think that's just like
(10:40):
a hobby for him. I think it is. I think
he's like a retired hard culturist or something like that. Oh,
that's I like that and sharing he's just right. He's
just taken excited about pineapples, as are we. Well, yes, yes,
you can relate. I can. I can't. I do have
a friend who is growing his own pineapple and I'm
(11:02):
kind of jealous and I keep asking for He's like,
stop bothering me about this pineapple business, and I'm but
it's for sen And we did see some two super cute,
tiny little pineapples, baby pineapples, but they're like fronds, were
big fronds pine pineapples. Yes, it was pretty rad. Oh,
(11:26):
but if you're ever in the store and you don't
have this guy, and you're wondering, how the heck do
I pick out a good pineapple? Never fear. You want
to look for one that has a green leaves and
a firm body. Um. Unlike most fruits, pineapples don't ripen
more once they've been picked, because they draw their sweetness
from there from their starch base um. Generally, though, the
sooner you eat them, the better, And if you cut
(11:47):
it up stored in the fridge. Yes, yeah. Nutrition wise, pineapple,
especially when fresh, is pretty healthy. It's high in vitamin
C and manganese, which helps out your immune system and
bone strength. Among loads of other things. It does have
fructose though, so you know, remember relative moderation. Yeah. Oh,
the aforementioned bromelin um, that enzyme found in pineapple um
(12:09):
can be used as a meat tenderizer and a cut
fruit preserver um, and sometimes use as an anti inflammatory.
There aren't any studies that conclusively show that this works,
but researchers are looking into that and into bromlin's potential
cancer fighting properties. Yeah. I do find pineapple is the
source of a lot of health trends, you know, dieting trends.
(12:35):
So always, as always, we recommend uh doct professionals because
that's not us represent bodies are complicated, yes, but if
you like pineapple, eat it. Yeah. Um. However, however, unripe
pineapple is toxic um. And eating a lot of pineapple
(12:56):
cores um, I mean they're they're edible, but they're so
fie brisks that it can apparently lead to the formation
of fiber balls in the digestive tract, which does not
sound I don't think you want those, I very much
don't want, no, thank you. But speaking of fiber, fibers
from the leaves are woven into embroidery, thread cloth, and
(13:18):
paper in places like Brazil and the Philippines. Cool, We
do have some numbers for you. Despite their association with Hawaii,
they are not native to Hawaii, nor is Hawaii the
top producer anymore. At least, the top producers of pineapple
where Costa Rica, Brazil, and the Philippines, with total worldwide
production equaling twenty five point four million tons. Behind apple
(13:41):
sauce and peaches, pineapple is the most canned fruit huh. Indeed,
and behind the Pearl Harbor bombing site, the Dull Pineapple
Plantation is the most visited tourist attraction in Hawaii. Currently,
Hawaii produces less than one per cent of the world's
crop of pineapples. While we were there, we didn't visit
Doll Nope. But we did go to a distillery, Holly
(14:05):
Emale Distillery tour and tasting room on Maui. But yeah,
they use fermented pineapple as the base of their neutral spirit,
from which they produced vodka's, runs, whiskeys, other stuff, which
means that I got to have at least one pineapple
product while we were on the island. Yes, uh, yeah,
they opened up shop on one of the former commercial
pineapple plantations on Mauie um one that was growing a
(14:28):
varietal called empty one um, known to the public as
the trademarked Mauie gold um, which is bred to be
even sweeter still than the m D two um, so
it has a lot of sugar for the yeast to
act on. The fermentation room in there smelled so good.
I love the smell of any fermentation room because I'm
kind of a weird nerd. But um, but man, that
(14:51):
always just so like fresh and bright and musky. Yeah,
it was really invigorating. Almost. Yeah. And one thing we
heard from a lot of people. I actually have a
lot of friends who asked me for this was the
pineapple as a souvenir pineapple home. I did not do
that for I did a whole joke thing where I
got it, like I got your pineapple. But I had
(15:11):
these little pineapple gummies because I'm a terrible friend. They
were big and expensive, and we had a poster to handle.
We did have a very big poster about fishing and
sustainability of why that we were in charge of. And
that was enough. That was enough. Um. If we're looking
at money, as pineapples were a nine billion dollar industry
(15:34):
the US imports one point one seven million tons of
pineapples as seen in the US. Easter is the number
one retail week for pineapples. Huh. Yeah, I wonder if
it's like pineapples on like an easter ham like doing
or like if there's yeah, some kind of what what
other pineapple? If if y'all use pineapple in your easter
(15:56):
cooking right in and let us know, yes, please do?
Oh gosh, and like cauliflower, this is another example of
the golden spiral in nature. Yeah, the plants, leaves and
berries grow in numbers in the Fibonacci sequence. Um. So,
like if you look at the segments on a pineapple,
you'll see that they form spirals around the plant, a
(16:18):
double helices of spirals actually, meaning they interweave cross ways. Um.
And yeah, it's just extremely likely that if you count
the number of segments in each spiral, the number will
be thirteen or twenty one. Wow, um, which are two
adjacent numbers in the Fibonacci sequence. Uh. That the golden
spiral is also constructed from the sequence. It goes one, one, two, three, five, eight, one,
(16:45):
et cetera, um, with each new number being the sum
of the two previous numbers, and lots of plants grow
seeds and petals and leaves in the sequence, and it's
why four leaf clovers are so rare because their genetically
anomaly from the typical three. Oh cool. Yeah, there's something
very calmon about reading numbers unless it's a number station,
unless right, unless it's in lost, and then it's very specifically.
(17:11):
Pineapple is used in all kinds of things, cocktails, fruit salads,
a key ingredient in some versions of my ambrogio, like
mine on Hawaiian pizza in stur Fries, tacos alpastor, and
it shows up in all kinds of pop culture. I
remember after we did this, it was the Oscar nominated movie.
(17:32):
A lot of people wrote in I think it was
the favorite. Had a scene with the pineapple. Yeah, I
think it was that SpongeBob. Obviously it's in the theme song.
Very important in a student in Scotland left a pineapple
at an art exhibit, hoping it would be mistaken for art,
and sure enough four days later when he came back
(17:54):
there with a class case around the pineapple. This is
one of my favorite most heartwarming stories me too, of
all time. I love it. I love it. And you know,
now in the context of that piece that was just
sold with the banana taped to the wall, and it
was called starving artists and artist ate the banana after
it sold for like two hundred thousand dollars. Yeah, so
(18:14):
this he was a trendsetter. He or she who ever
left this pineapple. I love that. That's great. Um. There's
also tiki culture, which we'll talk about a little bit
later on. We have yet to do a whole episode
about all the kitchen nostalgia and appropriation and other weirdness
that goes into all this, but tiki is definitely in
the midst of a resurgence. It is, indeed, and pineapples
(18:36):
also show up for other reasons, historical reasons, and we'll
get into some of those after we get back from
a quick break for a word from our sponsor, and
we're back. Thank you, sponsor, Yes, thank you, And we're
back with so much history, so much great history. I'm
(18:59):
telling you, this is one of my favorite. So many
interesting facts in this one, but let's get into it. Yes,
pineapples originated in South America, most likely in Brazil or Paraguay.
They were domesticated, possibly as far back as six thousand
years ago, possibly by the Tupi and or Garani people,
(19:20):
and spread throughout the continent from there into Central America,
Mexico and the West Indies. Local cultivators called it nana
are excellent fruit. I've also seen this meaning listed as
perfumed um. But either way, yeah, that's where we get
that scientific name ananas comosis. Yeah, that one, yes. And
also ananas is a character in our D and D campaign.
(19:42):
And she looks like a pineapple. I laughed and laughed
when she showed up, and everyone was like wise, is
so funny. And I told them, probably too much about pineapples.
I don't think so that. You can never say enough
about pineapples, especially at the D and D table where else.
In addition to being eaten raw or cooked, pineapple juice
was also fermented to make wine and liquors. It was,
(20:06):
and in some region still is also used medicinally due
to that bromelin content for a bunch of things. That's
a cure for gas row, intestinal parasites, and other stomach problems,
to cure skin problems like corns and worts, to stimulate
minschell flow, and to induce abortion and non edible cultivars
were grown for the strong fiber in their leaves, which
was woven to make stuff like clothing, hammocks, and fishing nets.
(20:30):
In four Christopher Columbus that guy Yep stumbled upon the
pineapple when he stopped on Guadaloupe, and he called it
Pinada Indies or pine of the Indians. In his journal,
he described it as resembling a pine cone, but also
as a sweet fruit with an apple's firmness. Yeah, he
returned to Spain with some pineapples, where they were a
(20:52):
huge hit. People really liked how sweet they were. When
people try to grow their pineapples in Europe, or more
particularly in England, they found little to no success due
to the non tropical weather for this very tropical plants.
Holland did have some success, however, and Dutchman Peter the
like court ven der Vorts is credited with growing the
(21:15):
first pineapple in Europe in sixteen eight. So Europeans had
to import pineapples, which was extremely time consuming and expensive,
and the fruit often arrived bruised and or rotten. Yeah,
they can't survive. Frost is the thing they do best
in temperatures like above sixty five degrees fahrenheit or eighteen celsius,
so pretty warm. Yeah. Magellan also got in the pineapple
(21:37):
game after he found them in Brazil in fifteen nineteen,
which increased the import of pineapples into Europe. They often
arrived candied or covered in syrup, since yeah that the
transport of it of the fruit was so difficult. During
the fifteen and sixteen hundred, Spain and Portugal introduced the
pineapple to places like Hawaii, possibly wom the Philippines, Zimbabwe
(21:58):
fifty in India if ateen ninety four, in China in
sixteen fifty five, and South Africa. Meanwhile, the word pineapple
first appeared in print around this time in sixteen sixty four,
and it got its name thanks to the resemblance to
a pine cone. Previously, pineapple was used to describe pine cones,
a word that also popped up in text for the
first time in sixteen sixty four. Due to the high
(22:19):
cost of refined sugar, the low availability of sweets, and
pineapple's rarity, it quickly became a symbol of wealth. King
Charles the Second commissioned a painting of him receiving a
pineapple from his gardener as a display of his his
royalty and wealthy sude. I love it. Paint a picture
(22:40):
of me getting this pineapple. Please, because I'm important enough
to get pineapples and I want everyone to know it.
We should. How much would it cost for us to
commission a painting of similar I mean, we already have
those photos of us holding pineapples, but it's not the same. Yeah,
we need to do the whole thing. We'll look into this.
Royals often gave pineapples as gifts when we're looking to
(23:00):
impress someone. In seventeen hundred Colonial America, perishable and rare
pineapples imported from the Caribbean islands could cost as much
as eight thousand dollars what into days money? Eight thousand yes,
for a pineapple. One pineapple, Oh gosh, eight thousand dollars.
(23:22):
At the time, most entertaining went on inside people's houses
at things like dinner parties, and when well off colonists
wanted to show off, they would display a pineapple at
these dinner parties. Eight thousand bucks for a display pineapple.
Their main use was decoration, and I guess to make
people feel worse about themselves, are better about you? I
(23:43):
don't know. They would only eat them once the pineapples
start to go bad. Yes, and perhaps because of this,
pineapples came to symbolize hospitality. More on that in a minute.
But okay, what about those poor souls like you and
I who perhaps afford to purchase outright a pineapple? Yes,
(24:03):
there was a system ready for you if you couldn't
afford a pineapple. There was a rental market you could
go to. Yes, enterprising pineapple sellers or bakers who use
pineapples in their desserts. And also, we're pretty in the
loop about local dinner parties would rent out pineapples before
(24:24):
selling them, and people would carry them around it parties
a pineapple. This is one of my favorite facts ever.
I want to bring it back. Just imagine you're at
a party and a bunch of people are carrying pineapples,
and I'm imagining you don't mention it, you know, sure, yeah, yeah, yeah,
(24:44):
because everyone is just so impressed. But it's probably like
rude to like really point it out. Yeah, and you
gotta hold it kind of yeah, well, I mean due
to aforementioned photo shoot. Like those things are not comfortable too,
and they're kind of heavy, they are, Yeah, and spiky.
That's why I love it so much. Yeah. Ultimately, though,
fashion is about that. It's about how much pain you're
(25:06):
willing to put in for for a look. Yeah yeah, deep, Well, well,
I you know, yeah, let's you know. We are the
music makers, we are the dreamers of the pineapples. We
can we can make this happen. Okay, our next work party,
let's coordinate. Okay, alright, some pineapples. All right, I'm gonna
(25:29):
like shave off the spiky bits. Yeah, that's true. We
can be we can be enterprising in our own way
about those, Okay. Okay. Meanwhile, George Washington named it his
favorite tropical fruit after trying it in Barbados in one
and yes it is. Around this time in the seventeen sixties,
at the pineapple as a symbol of friendship and hospitality
(25:52):
became super trendy. They were on napkins, tablecloths, wallpaper, bedposts,
pineapple shaped dishes on the gate post outside residences, on
the backs of chairs, on weather veins of important public buildings,
pineapple shaped candelaberas, and pictures door knockers. In the Caribbean,
you put a pineapple or pineapple crown outside your door
to represent friendship what they were everywhere, and you can
(26:16):
still see evidence of it to this day. In fact,
since we've done this episode, I see this all the time,
all the time, and I hear they're pretty prevalent in
colonial Williamsburg. I believe the first time we did this episode,
listeners road in and confirmed that they are. There is
even a huge pineapple shaped bit of architecture in Dunmore Park, Scotland,
(26:37):
built in seventeen sixty one. The building that this pineapple
tops originally contained a hothouse and we very highly recommend
you look it up because it is a thing of beauty.
It is majestic, yes, but that's not all foods were
pressed into pineapple shapes. Non pineapple foods into pineapple shapes,
pineapple shaped cakes, cookies, candies, gelatin mole um. But that
(27:01):
didn't fit the alliteration. Yeah, we love we love some
in alliteration around here. All the while, your patent given
up on growing their own pineapples, and with the advent
of the hot house in the seventeenth century, pineapples could
be grown more widely in Europe. The first recorded instance
of pineapple hot houses dates back to two belonging to
(27:23):
the Duchess of Cleveland, from which she gifted a pineapple
to King Charles. The second, which is how that aforementioned
painting came about. I love it, but yeah, even with
hot houses, pineapples couldn't be produced on a large scale,
and the cost was still high due to all of
the equipment and labor that was required. Like so high
in fact, that just owning one of these hot houses
(27:46):
meant for pineapples. They were called pine earis or pineapple stoves.
By the way, um, just having one of these hot
houses became a symbol for wealth along with the physical pineapple. Yes,
the hot house symbol of wealth, the pineapple inside the
hot house. Even more, some they do look like a crown.
They do look majestic, they do. I can see it sure.
(28:09):
Allegedly in seventeen seventy nine, the pineapple was even used
in political discourse, with an egalitarian dissenter saying water right,
has one man to eat a pineapple for which he
gave a guinea when another is starving for want of
a halfpenny worth of bread, with his opponent's response being
how many depend for their share of the guinea paid
(28:29):
for the pineapple? When you shall have divided the guineas
between all of these. I think that gentlemen might eat
with a good conscience. Oh snap, I think so. It
sounds like a snap. It sounds like a snap. I
guess sure, like I could tell. That's actually a deep
question for another day. It is right, uh. In the
(28:52):
seventeen seventies, British captain James Cook may have planted pineapples
on various islands around the South Pacific. Most of the
accounts of how the pineapple made it to Hawaii are
probably apocryphal. One popular story puts pineapples on the islands
in the seventeen nineties, introduced there by Spanish horticulturist Francisco
at the Polo Marian. For a period, he served as
(29:14):
the interpreter for Kingo the First, while simultaneously experimenting was
introducing a bunch of species of plants on the islands.
His records are the first written mention of pineapple on
the islands. Quote, this day I planted pineapples and an
orange tree. Um. Some stories say that the aforementioned James
Cook brought pineapples with him in seventeen seventy eight, but
(29:36):
others say that he found them already growing there. History's mysteries. Indeed,
at any rate, pineapples were growing in the wild and
in people's gardens in Hawaii by the time American missionaries
arrived in eighteen twenty. Lutheran missionaries introduced the pineapple to
Australia in the eighteen thirties, where it still grows. As
ship speed technology improved throughout the eighteen hundreds, with cutter
(29:57):
ships and steam ships, pineapples were imported the Caribbean and
Central America to wealthy folks in New York City. There
was an attempt to grow them in the United States
to avoid these high shipping costs. Um They were grown
poorly in Texas and California, and then a little bit
better in Florida, starting in eighteen sixty in the Keys
and most successfully in a belt along South Florida's east
(30:21):
coast um stretching from Fort Pierce down to Miami through
the early twentieth century, but the plantations there wore out
the soil, and that plus South Florida's tendency to occasionally
experience frost, wiped out the crop. Yes, Also around the
eighteen sixties, pineapple from the Bahamas and Cuba was canned
in Baltimore, the canning center of America. Seriously, it was
(30:43):
really new and expensive technology. But the pineapples cand around
that time were picked green, which yellowed over time but
didn't actually ripen further and therefore weren't as tasty as
a real ripe. Pineapple. Technicians in Baltimore developed the machines
that core and sliced pineapple into the familiar rings. And
this brings us to one of those companies named for
(31:05):
a single dude, Dole. But first it brings us to
a word from our sponsor, and we're back, Thank you, sponsor. Yes,
thank you, and we're back with more history. Yes and
(31:26):
yes Dole. Okay. By this time, in the mid eighteen hundreds,
California was in the midst of a gold rush and
was importing so much pineapple from Hawaii, and this, along
with sugarcane, spurred the many waves of immigrants that came
to Hawaii and helped make the islands cultures what they
are today. European and American business humans found that they
(31:47):
needed laborers to replace the native population, which had been
rapidly dwindling due to introduced disease and other issues. Um
the indigenous population dropped from around three thousand when Cook
arrived in seventy to about seventy thousand by eighteen fifty three,
which is around when the first wave of Chinese immigrants
began arriving. But pineapple still didn't really take to the
(32:07):
journey overseas and frequently rotted along the way. English horticulturists
and Captain John Kidwell got the idea to can pineapple
and wine sell it in eighteen eighty two, though he
wasn't the first, and this was after he'd conducted several
experiments to find the best pineapple cultivar. Smooth Cayen was
the winner. Yeah, without Kidwell, the pineapple might never have
become as a globally popular or available as it did.
(32:31):
And you can check out stuff emins in history class.
They have a whole episode on the story they do.
But the U S tariff on imported fruits and exorbitant
shipping costs made it pretty much impossible for Kidwell to
make a profit and he shut down in which was
too bad for him because later that same year, the
Hawaiian Kingdom was annexed by the US after the Spanish
American War and the tariff was lifted. As we said
(32:53):
in our intro to Oahu episode, mostly white European and
American businessman, especially in the burgeoning and potentially massively lucrative
sugarcane and pineapple industries on the island, did not want
to have to deal with the Hawaiian monarchy, so they
pressured the king to sign the Bannet Agreement. In seven
a new constitution signed at gunpoint, and this essentially allowed
(33:15):
only those of certain ethnicities, mostly white people, of a
certain wealth, mostly rich people, to vote and drastically diminished
the power of the native monarchy. When Queen Liliuokalani came
to power, she attempted to replace this constitution with her own,
which didn't sit well with the businessmen benefiting from the
constitution that they had forcibly instituted. The aid of the U. S. Government,
(33:37):
Sanford Dole, cousin of James Dole, led a coup against
the queen. Faced with the U. S. Militia, the queen surrendered.
Sanford Dole meanwhile was appointed President of the Republic of Hawaii.
Oh yeah, it is a really intense, fascinating, tragic story. Pineapples,
or rather the agriculture barons who controlled the pineapple plantations,
(33:58):
you know, not the fruit themselves had a direct hand
in overthrowing the Hawaiian monarchy. Um as US commercial interest
in local farmland increased YEP. With Kidwell's pineapple research and
canning equipment in place, the industry was easy enough to restart,
and in nineteen hundred Jim Dole, who was twenty two
years old and knew nothing about cannony, bought up sixty
(34:19):
ago on acres of land four growing pineapples during a
homestead expanse program in the newly annexed Republic of Hawaii.
Dole established the Hawaiian Pineapple Company in nineteen o one,
and by nineteen o three the company had produced cases
of pineapple lots of nineteens. Despite having been called by
the local press a fool hardy avenger hole. They were
very incorrect. That would be such a great review. Fools
(34:43):
I like savor A fool I like it u at
this time, I mean they could be forgiven for thinking
this because at this time sugarcane was king in Hawaii.
UM though um some of the Japanese immigrants who had
been out to the islands as in ventured laborers um
kind of knew what was up. They they moved from
(35:05):
sugarcane to the relatively more flexible pineapple industry once their
term was up in nineteen o eight, about seven point
five percent of lands occupied by pineapple were run by
folks of Japanese descent. But part of pineapple's eventual success
was just luck because sugarcane doesn't do as well at
(35:26):
high elevations, so that land was the land that was
given over to the homesteaders and their pineapples. Um. Yeah,
pineapples thrive at high elevations, yes, but the pineapple still
wasn't the easiest crop, and Dole operated at a loss
for several years in the beginning, which he could weather
due to his excellent connections. Dole was very proactive in
(35:46):
pushing from new technologies, and in nineteen thirteen this led
to the invention of the Ganaka machine by Dole employee
Henry Ganaka. This machine could remove the skin, core, and
ends of pineapple in less than thirty seconds. In nineteen eighteen,
Doll produced one million cans of pineapple, and a slightly
improved goo knocka machine is still used to this day. Yeah.
(36:09):
Dole was also really good at marketing his product. Yeah.
After a market crash in seven, Dolls Company and six
other pineapple growers formed up into the Hawaiian Pineapple Growers
Association UM, and they mounted the very first generic product
ad campaign in the United States food processing industry. No
one had ever just been like pineapples eat them before.
(36:32):
It was always like this brand eats that specific right sure,
yeah UM, And it worked and was soon copied by
lots of other industries. By nineteen twenty, as the industry
shifted and consolidated, almost eighty eight percent of the small
pineapple farms were Japanese run. These were largely bought out
by the big companies. Over the next few decades, like Dole,
(36:52):
by his business had taken off, and by Dole was
packing more pineapple than anyone else in the business. The
pineapple was Hawaii's biggest industry. And I remember when we
interviewed Hawaiian Senator Donovan Della Cruz, he said pineapple juice
ran in his veins. I think partially because he ate
so much as a good but but but mostly because
(37:13):
he grew up surrounded by the industry, including his family
having worked in it for two generations. During the nineteen twenties,
eating pineapple was perceived as a bit of a fad,
spawning culinary trends like the pineapple upside down cake, pineapple
upside down cake um and this was probably also partially
due to UM the boom in air freight in the
(37:34):
nineteen twenties, which made shipping much quicker and easier, though
it wouldn't become fully widespread until after World War Two.
The industry took a hit during the Great Depression which
started It got so bad that James Dole was forced
to resign as president of the Hawaiian Pineapple Company in
nineteen thirty two. However, the Hawaiian Pineapple Company's development of
(37:55):
technology to produce high quality canned pineapple juice in e
would help make up for some of those losses. Juice
sales surged over the next couple of decades, and that
boom of pineapple juice sales in UH in the nineteen
thirties may have had to do with prohibition ending that
year and with the rise of tiki bar culture starting
(38:16):
in ninety four, because that's when Don Beach born Ernest
Raymond Beaumont Gant returned from room running in the South
Pacific and opened Don's Beachcomer Cafe in California, which became
the its spot for Hollywood Royalty, and UM started a
fad for all things vaguely and or offensively Polynesian themed
UM that would stretch through the early nineteen seventies and
(38:38):
employ a large number of pineapples. Yes, Yes, can hear
more about that in our My Entai episode? Absolutely yeah.
Though Doll is the most profitable accounting for pineapples for
the next seven decades. By the nineteen fifties, eight other
companies had taken note from Doll's success and set up
shop in Hawaii. A series of reords and consolidations helped
(39:01):
Doll along. Yes. After World War Two, the pineapple industry
spread to places like Thailand and the Philippines, where the
labor costs were way lower, like nine tents lower. Um
Yeah yeah, exploitation of overseas populations with fewer labor laws.
Yeah yeah, but okay. So as a result, the Hawaiian
(39:23):
pineapple industry saw significant decline by the nineteen sixties, leading
to lots more consolidations. Those finally ended in the company
becoming Doll in nine But despite attempts to innovate around
canning and shipping a fresher product. Doll's Cannery and Honolulu
closed in and del Monte left Hawaii in two eight.
(39:45):
Most pineapple production in Hawaii today is to satisfy local demand.
UM and cuisines on the islands still regularly feature pineapple. Yes,
you kind of a joke that it came up at
least three times where it's when we were interviewing with say,
you put pineapple on something, and people immediately assume it's
Hawaiian and nut's not true and that's not how we eat.
(40:07):
Although although Andrew did have a pizza that had that
had a colo pig and arugula and some kind of
barbecue marinary base and pineapple and it was good. It
was delicious. Yeah, that was it. That was at Moku.
Everything there was delicious. And yeah. That brings us to
(40:30):
today more or less and to an important discussion that
we have to have here, which is the environmental impact
of commercial pineapple production. So UM, the problems created by
growing pineapple commercially all revolve around the fact that it's
easiest to grow as a monoculture, meaning that you wipe
(40:50):
out everything else and just grow that For acres and
acres and akers um, and if the industry collapses as
it did on Hawaii, it's difficult to switch over those
field to supporting other crops because pineapple doesn't need as much,
if any, irrigation, so you have to create a whole
new infrastructure. Um. We've mentioned Senator Dela Cruz a couple
(41:10):
of times in this episode, and he started our interview
with him unprompted, talking about this issue. So, I'm Donovan
Dela Cruz Aloha. I'm in the State Senate. I've been
in the State Senate since two thousand ten, and I
represent Central Oahu which is Waihiwa Milani Malka and it
(41:31):
it's we're all. We're doll first started. So when I
grew up, there were seven thousand acres of pineapple land
and Central o Wahu. What was it like growing up
with with that, with that weird culture. So it was
it was a norm for us. I mean, we saw
pine My grandparents came from the Philippines to pick pineapple.
(41:52):
My dad worked on in the field during the summer
when he was growing up. So it's it's difficult to
see that Hawaii hasn't really transitioned into a a much
larger diversified agricultural society from pineapple and sugar. And so,
I mean, I think there's potential, there's some land that
(42:13):
has been lost because of development. But it's not that
easy just taking pineapple land and turning him into the
versified egg because pineapple requires a different kind of infrastructure. Um,
what are some of the projects and initiatives that you
do a lot of work in environmental and agricultural policy.
What are some of the projects you're working on right now?
(42:34):
So every since I got to the Senate, and before
I was in the Senate, I was on the Hole
City Council. So when I was on the council, the
city dedicated funds to purchase some egg land in partnership
with the state and the army. So we bought abouts
of egg land that was once del Monty Land, the
(42:55):
Monty Pineapple which is right next to the do Land.
And we actually finalize that purchase in two thousand twelve,
even though we budgetated for it in two thousand eight,
so it took four years. And since then I've added
more and more money to the budget, and so now
we're at about pineapple land now in the state's ownership.
(43:18):
But we also have to put in money for water infrastructure.
So once we just we have the land, that doesn't
mean they can farment right away. So we got because
pineapple didn't need water. It was a familiad rain candle
by and so now when you do diversified egg you
have to put money in for water infrastructure. So we're
looking at a variety of solutions. One solution is actually
(43:40):
recycling water that is in a nearby lake. So yeah,
there are things that can be done to help agriculture
recover from this kind of farming practice, but that's for
areas that are moving on from pineapple. Another thing about
mono cropping is that it means eliminating all other ants
(44:00):
in the area with herbicides. Bugs and molds are a
problem too, so add pesticides and fungicides to the mix.
In the final product, you know, your your final pineapple.
These substances come through as legally allowable residues, but they
can be disastrous to the local humans and the whole ecosystem.
And this is why the pineapple is one of those
(44:20):
stories of a lack of corporate concern for environmental and
worker conditions in the face of expanding profits. Those chemicals
used on pineapples in their largest supplying country at Costa
Rica are in fact illegal to who's in Europe and
other parts of the world due to their links to cancer,
hormone disruption, and other chronic illnesses in local populations, and
(44:42):
as of two thousand seven, the Costa Rican government had
to start importing water in tankers because the groundwater was
deemed unsafe and the worker conditions UM Again in Costa Rica,
there have been reports of undocumented immigrants from Nicaragua filling
upwards of six of the pineapple plantation jobs. You know,
the labor is hard and the conditions are dangerous due
(45:03):
to chemical exposure, but as the immigrants aren't citizens, they
can't participate in local unions and other efforts to assert
worker rights. Similar things have gone on in the Philippines,
particularly on dull plantations, and in Costa Rica, citizens who
have fought for better conditions have sometimes met with forceful
resistance UM, mass firings and even rehirings with poorer contracts
(45:26):
that exclude union members and UM, and even threats UM
suspected beatings in arson. So that's not no UM, but
you can do stuff to help buy fair trade certified
fruit if you can find it. UM. Crops with that
labeling are more likely to have been growning conditions that
(45:46):
prevent the need for heavy chemical use through practices like
prop rotation. UM. And this is where some folks would
also recommend buying organic. That's the term that honestly doesn't
have a strong enough legal meaning here in the United States.
To make for sure in packed, we'll have to do
a whole other depressive episode of that. We've been kind
of avoiding it. I mean, if it makes you feel
(46:07):
better by organic, yeah, yeah. Um. Agriculture is well complicated, y'all,
very much, is it is? And a lot of the
laws around it also very complicated. Yep, yep, yep. We've
had the pleasure of discussing some of those laws in
this episode and in most of our episodes, learning so
much legal scholars that's what we are. Oh, absolutely, you
(46:30):
can tell. I'm sure comes through. Well, that's a lot
to say about the pineapple, yes, but all of it
is really fascinating, weird important stuff. Yes, and it's I
just gotta go get one and carried around. Gosh, what
(46:51):
a beautiful, beautiful, weird thing. People are so fascinating. I say,
I say, brig into your to your New Year's party. Yes,
hello twenties, I brought a pineapple. Oh, thank you, Loyd.
You're very welcome, and you know what, thanks to to
(47:12):
the listeners for checking out this our first of a redux. Yeah. Yeah,
and we hope that you have wonderful holidays. Whatever you
celebrate or don't celebrate, just relax, be safe, be happy.
If you like carry a pineapple around, please totally carry pineapple.
Take a picture, send it in. We need we need
(47:34):
your your hot pineapple stylens. Yes, the hot stylence of
the pineapple. They are very I noticed they're on a
lot of clothing. Yeah, and since I've come out with
my love of pineapples, I've got like a little purse
and another little purse and shirt with them on it,
coat with them on it, there, the whole thing. So
(47:55):
so there you go. Yes, if you would like to
email us your your pictures of pine apples and you
probably carrying them around, you can. Our email is hello
at favor pod dot com. We're also on social media.
You can you can tag us uh in your pineapple pictures. There.
We're at savor pod on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, and
we do hope to hear from you. Savor is a
(48:16):
production of I Heart Radio and Stuff Media. For more
podcasts from my heart Radio, you can visit the iHeart
Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows. Thanks as always to our super producers Dylan
Fagan and Andrew Howard. Thanks to you for listening, and
we hope that lots more good things are coming your way.
Savor News
Hosts And Creators
Anney Reese
Lauren Vogelbaum
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