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As someone with no sense of smell (a condition known as anosmia) vanilla had always seemed like a cop-out on the countless other delicious desserts more richly decorated with colour and texture. Take away the famously decadent scent and what’s left?
Regardless, I have since come to love its simplicity (especially when paired with milo!), and the world revolves around vanilla as the staple ingredient of more than 18,000 market products. However the majority of these products are actually flavoured with synthetic vanillin, the chemically engineered artificial cousin of vanilla which is 20 times cheaper and probably 200 times easier to produce!
Finding ‘true’ vanilla
Natural vanilla stems from the vanilla orchid native to Central and South America, and the Caribbean. Arguably first cultivated in the 16th century by the Totonacs inhabiting Mexico’s east, vanilla was carried across to Europe as an additive to chocolate, only becoming popular as a sole hero of desserts in the early 17th century – quickly becoming a favourite of Queen Elizabeth.
The predictable spike in demand for the trendy new flavour called for the import of the vanilla plant in attempts to reduce the extensive costs of both production and transportation across the Atlantic. However the orchid never produced any beans in England or France, as it was later revealed that without the Melipona bee native to Mexico, the flower refused to cater to European ecosystems and couldn’t be naturally pollinated.
It was only in the 1840s after the cultivation of a laboriously delicate hand-pollination technique by Edmund Albius (a 12 year old slave on Réunion) that the plant was able to be produced and profitable elsewhere. Today, 75% of natural vanilla is grown in Réunion and Madagascar, both places which have experienced radical economic and agricultural transformations as a result.
Following the scent (of profit)
An ABC foreign correspondent episode entitled ‘Vanilla Slice‘ followed this evolution within Madagascar, as Adam Harvey unearthed the development of villages now rooted in the vanilla production industry. Harvey follows the wake of vanilla profits which brought bigger buildings and flashy consumer goods, but also doesn’t shy away from the violence, corruption, and danger that the valuable plant harbours.
As with the broader agriculture industry, vanilla farmers are vulnerable to environmental impetus like natural disasters, such as the 2017 Cyclone nicknamed ‘Enamo’ which severely damaged that season’s crop. Further, Harvey witnessed how some – taunted by the economic promise of vanilla – resort to stealing the precious beans to sell within street trading networks, bringing violence and high stakes which have even resulted in death.
Thus in correspondence with the labour-intensive production of vanilla – featuring a limited pollination period of only 24 hours – farmers must be diligent with protecting their crop, both from the elements and from others. With the price of vanilla jumping from $80AUD to $800AUD per kilo in recent years, its safe to say that the value of ‘basic’ vanilla is certainly not that, as it has become considered a somewhat gateway drug of financial capital and opportunity to profit.
The production vs consumption dichotomy
A growing desire for natural vanilla by companies and consumers alike has reignited a somewhat modern spin on the spice trade which has flavoured the ‘silk road’ since the beginning of the millenium. The production of vanillin, while cheaper and quicker, produces polluted run-off, and some organisations such as Friends of the Earth have concerns, launching the ‘Campaign for Natural Vanilla‘. However in a reverse twist of fate, Harvey highlighted the environmental consequences of natural vanilla production, as forests are cut in order to meet the demand for vanilla. Beyond a debate regarding which is more a threat to environmental degradation, this causes us to think about the disjoint between the processes of production and the ethical demands of consumption.
A TED talk by the University of Queensland’s Professor Kristen Lyons provides a sociological analysis of our human relationship with the environment, and how it has changed as we work towards ‘sustainable development’. Lyons discusses the misconception of land usage by taking the example of ‘carbon offsets’ to highlight the gap between good intentions and the reality of environmental consequences. For example, global carbon trading initiatives are used by groups such as airplane companies in an effort to theoretically ‘trade-off’ the negative effects of airplane flying. You wouldn’t think that planting trees could be harmful in any sense, and yet ‘plantation forestry’ (the planting of trees to ‘reverse’ CO2 outputs) is itself problematic in practice. The introduction of an homogenous plant and subsequent dominance has an underlying effect on both the environment – such as disrupting ecosystems – as well as on humans, often impacting the most vulnerable communities who rely on the land.
Overall, Lyons highlights how the burden of responsibility for environmental degradation often falls upon the poor, and that we must consider both environmental and social justice factors when attempting to ‘counter’ our environmental impacts. I won’t pretend to understand the complexities of ‘gaia capitalism’ (a concept regarding economically motivated sustainable practices, alluding to Greek mythology’s Earth goddess Gaia), however I do think that this showcases some of the issues of the West’s approach to ‘sustainable development’.
So…what about vanilla?
Having followed the layered production of natural vanilla, its impact on communities, and demand from consumers, I have a new appreciation for the flavour. It is one of many examples that could be explored in a plethora of directions regarding production or sustainability, but really is important because if we think about it enough, then we can start to consider some broader, more worldly issues. As always, I hope that you have possibly learned something new, and may now think a little bit bigger than what comes in the bottle.
References
Lyons, K. (2018). Responsibility to cool a warming planet does not lie with the poor. TEDx Talks. University of Queensland.
Rupp, R. (2014). The History of Vanilla. National Geographic.
Sethi, S. (2017). The Bittersweet Story of Vanilla. Smithsonian Magazine.
Harvey, A. (2019). Vanilla Slice. ABC Foreign Correspondent.
Explore further:
Jabr, F. (2020). The Social Life of Forests. The New York Times Magazine.
