Here is a field of pineapples, the famous and well known Maui Golds. Mmm pineapple, right?
Wait, what is that black stuff ground up into the soil that I can see when I look closely? Can you guess? Maybe it is manure? Black sand for minerals?
No. Plastic!
My friend worked for one of the big agri companies on the island, and this is a true story. When they go to plant new crops (also with sugarcane), they sometimes lay plastic to block weeds, and then run thin plastic pipes along each row for drip irrigation. The plants are harvested, and then they must prepare the ground for the next planting. But it is too much work to move and reuse the plastic and pipes from the previous crop- much cheaper just to get new plastic on a spool. So where does the old plastic go? They plow it into the earth. So: much of these crops are grown in a several foot deep mixture of dirt and plastic, years and years worth.
Do you want a pineapple now?
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