I love bananas. I eat them all the time. To me bananas are wonderful fruit because they work in things that are very healthy, like oatmeal, and things that are not so healthy, like ice cream dishes and banana chocolate chips pancakes. Unlike other eco vs. frugal decisions, my banana purchasing pattern isn’t based mainly on environmental or financial considerations. I buy organic bananas, but I don’t buy them because they’re organic, I buy them because they are fair-trade. Where I live organic bananas run 99 cents/lb and regular bananas run 49 cents/lb (when there are no sales). However, it doesn’t cost me anything extra to buy fair trade organic bananas from my local co-op. Distribution normally only happens once or twice towards the end of the week, so you have to plan ahead, but other than that there’s no difference between purchasing the regular organic vs. the fair-trade. While the price of the fair-trade bananas is twice the price of the conventional ones, I feel that it really is a small price difference on my side, whereas it makes a really big difference for the farmers who are producing them. Where I live bananas are the only fair-traded fruit that I’ve seen (not including local produce) and they are available year-round at the same price (which can not be said for many other produce items). One could probably make the argument that small farm organic growing practices are likely a lot more sustainable as well. However, for me this is secondary to the human benefit. Seeing as there aren’t really any bananas grown in this part of the world, it’s likely that I won’t see the direct impact of my decision. Still for me, it’s pretty much an easy choice: I’ll gladly take the eco option, even at twice the price.

Which means the score is now: eco 2, frugal 1