P.C. Palm Sunday

By Margot Roosevelt

More than 300 million palm fronds are harvested each year from Central American rain forests for the U.S. market--many for Palm Sunday, when Christians commemorate Jesus' entry into Jerusalem five days before his Crucifixion. This Sunday, 281 churches in 34 states will mark the occasion with "eco-palms." Cooperatives in Mexico and Guatemala have agreed to harvest sustainably, taking only a few fronds per plant. Churches pay premium prices, helping the workers who collect the fronds. "We must be good to our neighbors," says Pastor Glenn Berg-Moberg of St. Anthony Park Lutheran Church in St. Paul, Minn. "Even ones we will never meet."