Case Study: Pineapple Farming

We live in an interconnected world, where our health and welfare depend on our ability to care for each other as well as the soils, oceans and skies which sustain us and our jobs.

Just as Ugandan climate activist Vanessa Nakate reminds us that “we cannot eat coal… we cannot drink oil”… we should also remember that we cannot breathe fashion.

Moving towards a circular economy is as much about creating safe and fair working conditions as it is about caring for Earth. At THE REVIVAL, we always focus on using what you have around you.

Now we want you to become a researcher again as we introduce an upcycling case study where THE REVIVAL worked with pineapple farmers in Accra. In this project, THE REVIVAL’s Ghana team worked to repurpose the large amounts of denim coming into Kantamanto Market, to help protect pineapple farmers at work.

As you read the following interview excerpt from Yayra, and look at the artistic photography, try to note all the different people, resources, skills and ideas it took to get a project such as this one going.

“We decided to upcycle denim, which is the majority of the waste we see coming to Kantamanto, to solve a problem in agriculture. We realised that the problem for pineapple farmers was with protective gear. When see a pineapple farmer, they have bruises on their skin because of pines. They get injured. So based on talking, interviewing and speaking to these farmers, researching, we came up with the idea of recycling denim into overalls for these farmers.

We wanted to put style first. If you go back centuries, work wear was defined by style, so we took that cue, used it as a design guide and added our creative touch to it. This is because art is one of the components of our process. We screen printed pineapples onto the denim, just to make it stylish.

We also wanted to educate people about agriculture, because I realised that in my generation and the generation before me, they have no idea about agriculture. If we don’t create awareness and encourage people to be involved in food production, it will be a big problem, for agriculture and for us. Additionally, we wanted to use this to help the farmers look great and feel respected, so that they are seen as people who have high importance to livelihood.”