POSTGRAD COURSE AT WHOLE FOODS COSTA RICAN INTERN WORKS TOWARD MBA.

Byline: JULIA M. SCOTT

Staff Writer

SANTA MONICA -- Aldo Bettoni wants to change the world one banana at a time.

The 22-year-old believes food grown using sustainable methods -- like the ones he learned while earning a bachelor's degree in agricultural science at Costa Rica's Escuela de Agricultura de la Region Tropical Humeda, widely known as EARTH University -- can end hunger and poverty. His commitment to sustainable goods comes from a desire to leave something for future generations.

"If we continue doing what we are doing, ... what am I going to show my kids? A bunch of cement?" he said during his lunch break at Whole Foods Market, where he started a yearlong internship this week.

Bettoni will work at stores in the San Fernando Valley and Santa Monica, earning $10 an hour at the upscale grocer known for natural and organic products. He will learn every aspect of the business, from negotiating prices with local farmers to operating a cash register and running a distribution center.

"By the time he is done, he will know how to run a Whole Foods Market," said recruiter Sandra Stuver.

The internship grew out of a business relationship. Whole Foods buys 100 tons of EARTH bananas a week and sells them in stores across the country. They were 69 cents a pound at the Santa Monica store.

Whole Foods executives visited EARTH's campus years ago before they started buying the school's bananas and were taken by the students and faculty.

"I was completely enthralled with them -- their alignment with Whole Foods values, their entrepreneurial spirit, environmental focus," said Michael Besancon, head of the grocer's Southern Pacific region.

The internship program is in its third year. Bettoni is the first to work longer than three months. He is staying with an employee in Northridge.

Bettoni pushed for a position at Whole Foods after a friend recommended it. With the experience he hopes to earn an MBA and then start his own business in his native Costa Rica.

Prospects range from a drive-through market to a fruit-smoothie operation.

Whatever he does will be sustainable, which Bettoni describes as having three components. Employees must receive fair pay and benefits, the environment must not be harmed, and the business must turn a profit.

There is pressure to add a fourth "must" to the sustainable equation: Food must be bought locally.

"Some people are suggesting 'food-mile' labels," said Jeff Schahczenski, a spokesman for the National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service. The private nonprofit group is funded by the United States Department of Agriculture.

The labels would let buyers know where goods came from. Items grown using sustainable or organic methods may travel thousands of miles before shoppers see them for sale, using natural resources and taxing the environment in the process.

The labels would be a step toward defining sustainable goods, which, unlike organic foods, are not regulated. Organic guidelines are stricter than sustainable ones and include restrictions on pesticides, fertilizers and growth hormones.

Without a measurable definition of sustainability, it is difficult to say what percentage of food is grown according to these principles.

Schahczenski guesstimates that 20 percent to 30 percent of food sales in this country are sustainable. Organic food sales account for 3 percent of food sales, he said.

Farms that grow sustainable products pay workers fair wages. EARTH's banana farm supports 400 jobs for locals, according to Bettoni. And if there were more plantations like EARTH's, there would be more jobs and fewer people hungry.

julia.scott(at)dailynews.com

[phone]

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Aldo Bettoni, a graduate of EARTH University in Costa Rica, arranges produce at a Whole Foods Market. He is interning for the grocer in Santa Monica and the Valley.

(2 -- color) Intern Aldo Bettoni, left, and produce team leader Ernesto Solona, center, help a customer at Whole Foods in Santa Monica on Wednesday. The upscale grocer sells bananas grown by students at a Costa Rican university Bettoni attends.

Michael Owen Baker/Staff Photographer