12k Tons of Dumped Orange Peel Grew into a Landscape Nobody Expected (2017)
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Re: 12k Tons of Dumped Orange Peel Grew into a Landscape Nobody Expected (2017)
#2> Despite this promising start, the conservation experiment wasn't to last, after a rival juice manufacturer called TicoFruit sued Del Oro, alleging that its competitor had "defiled a national park".
... why does TicoFruit even care? Did they just see their competitor do something that might be good for people and sue them out of spite?
Re: 12k Tons of Dumped Orange Peel Grew into a Landscape Nobody Expected (2017)
#3> Despite this promising start, the conservation experiment wasn't to last, after a rival juice manufacturer called TicoFruit sued Del Oro, alleging that its competitor had "defiled a national park". ... why does TicoFruit even care? Did they just see their competitor do something that might be good for people and sue them out of spite?
I guess tico fruit is just an asshole. Being sued is usually bad. If you can sue your competitor even better.
Re: 12k Tons of Dumped Orange Peel Grew into a Landscape Nobody Expected (2017)
#4One risk here is that a giant pile of biomass could allow nefarious critters to grow disproportionately. For example, in Alaska, they had giant brush piles that ended up fueling beetle infestations across the state.
Re: 12k Tons of Dumped Orange Peel Grew into a Landscape Nobody Expected (2017)
#5> Despite this promising start, the conservation experiment wasn't to last, after a rival juice manufacturer called TicoFruit sued Del Oro, alleging that its competitor had "defiled a national park". ... why does TicoFruit even care? Did they just see their competitor do something that might be good for people and sue them out of spite?
My guess is that Del Oro would have a competitive advantage in its waste disposal costs.
Re: 12k Tons of Dumped Orange Peel Grew into a Landscape Nobody Expected (2017)
#6This being HN - might there be any Costa Rican lawyers in the house?
It would be extremely interesting to hear about the legal merits of the rival company's lawsuit, and the politics of the Supreme Court.
Re: 12k Tons of Dumped Orange Peel Grew into a Landscape Nobody Expected (2017)
#7> As for how the orange peels were able to regenerate the site so effectively in just 16 years of isolation, nobody's entirely sure.
Another data point to the thesis that it's not the earth that needs saving, it's human systems. If disruption becomes the order of the day, who's impacted the worst?
Re: 12k Tons of Dumped Orange Peel Grew into a Landscape Nobody Expected (2017)
#8> Despite this promising start, the conservation experiment wasn't to last, after a rival juice manufacturer called TicoFruit sued Del Oro, alleging that its competitor had "defiled a national park". ... why does TicoFruit even care? Did they just see their competitor do something that might be good for people and sue them out of spite?
They saw it as corruption, basically. Here's a contemporaneous article: https://apps.sas.upenn.edu/caterpillar/index.php?action=retr...
> TicoFrut, which is 98% Costa Rican-owned, charges that the environmental services contract is little more than a permit for improper disposal of its foreign-owned competitor's waste. TicoFrut President Carlos Odio says Del Oro should be compelled to build a proper waste-disposal plant just as his company was forced to do in the mid-1990s amid allegations that orange waste from its juicing plant was polluting a nearby river. So TicoFrut teamed up with a high-profile environmentalist and radio host, Alexander Bonilla, and enlisted the support of two prominent congressmen and a few citrus growers in denouncing the Del Oro project. However, none of Costa Rica's conservation groups joined in the attack on Del Oro.
[...]
> One of the ministers they cited was the acting environment minister at the time, Carlos Manuel Rodriguez, who signed the contract on behalf of the government. Rodriguez, an attorney, denied having sat on Del Oro's board but acknowledged representing the company while working in a law firm contracted by the CDC, Del Oro's British owners. The other official, Agriculture Minister Esteban Brenes, acknowledged having sat on Del Oro's board but denied any involvement with the contract.
> TicoFrut also claimed foreign employees of the CDC and, by extension, Del Oro, had received diplomatic immunity as a sweetener to invest, and could thus act with impunity.
> The Costa Rican Ombudsman's Office conducted its own review and declared the contract illegal. In its non-binding ruling, the ombudsman's office said no official studies had been done on the viability of the orange-waste experiment, and that due process had not been followed before the contract's signing
Re: 12k Tons of Dumped Orange Peel Grew into a Landscape Nobody Expected (2017)
#9Why dump the peel when you can use the entire orange to make that nasty orange British drink.
Re: 12k Tons of Dumped Orange Peel Grew into a Landscape Nobody Expected (2017)
#10> As for how the orange peels were able to regenerate the site so effectively in just 16 years of isolation, nobody's entirely sure.
We now understand that fungus plays a vital role in the soil ecosystem. And given how easily fruit and vegetables rot and get moldy, the orange peel mass sounds like the perfect layer for the fungus to thrive in. The dead earth received a live giving blanket yielding healthy soil vegetation can thrive in.