But, In the past few weeks, I have learned of the dark side of the banana industry and vow to never buy a conventionally grown banana again. Nearly every stage in the cultivation and distribution of conventional bananas is irresponsible and unethical:
- In Central and South America, banana companies acquire and protect their land only with large thanks to corporate partnership with federal governments (Banana Republic).
- When people think of bananas, they think of one single species, the Cavendish, that has been cultivated to "perfection". This species specialization is economically efficient for the short-term, but the genetic uniformity means that if a single plant contracts disease, then famine follows.
- The danger of disease sweeping through banana populations means that banana factories justify high amounts of pesticide. Not only do these chemicals harm ecosystems, but also surrounding residents and especially workers. We’re talking worker sterility and fingernails falling off.
- Banana corporations tend to treat their workers with minimal respect, particularly the company Noboa, or Bonita, in Ecuador. Workers are seldom able to find better employment, organize, or receive benefits. Again, corporate partnership with government doesn’t help matters.
Sources with Quotes:
Dubner, Stephen. “The Economics of Bananas”, Freakonomics Blog, The New York Times. 2008.
“Over and over, banana companies, aided by the American military, intervened whenever there was a chance that any “banana republic” might end its cooperation. …Labor is still cheap in these countries, and growers still resort to heavy-handed tactics.”
“Some readers may recoil at this description and vow to never eat another banana. Others may thank their lucky stars that free markets are able to deliver a tasty, healthy, peel-intact fruit to their corner stores at very affordable prices.”
Reader named Nathaniel: “I’m not sure how an economist can consider the banana industry to even remotely resemble a free market, especially right after he inserts a quote detailing how entire governments were overthrown and armed force has been used for over a century to make the industry profitable. That’s about as far from a free market as I can imagine a product being — hold your workers at gunpoint, prevent outsiders from interfering, and pass the costs of such measures onto the taxpayers of the United States!”
Forero, Juan. “In Ecuador’s Banana Fields, Child Labor is Key to Profits”, The New York Times. 2002.
“Pressures on businesses to be efficient and profitable are often passed on to the world's most vulnerable population, its poorest children.”
Frank, Dana. “Our Fruit, Their Labor, and Global Reality”, The Washington Post via Global Exchange. 2002.
“The big banana producers have been transferring production to Ecuador, which has been almost completely nonunion since the banana labor movement was largely crushed there in the 1970s. Dole now gets 31 percent of its bananas from Ecuador, Del Monte 13 percent, and Chiquita 7 percent, according to industry figures.”
Bob Kistinger: "The costs in Ecuador are so much lower. There are no unions, no labour standards and pay is as low as two dollars a day." According to a 2000 study by US/LEAP, a banana worker's average monthly wage was $500 in Panama, $200 to $300 in Colombia, $150 to $200 in Honduras -- and $56 in Ecuador. ...The transnationals are quick to play this card in contract negotiations with the banana unions. Last October, when Del Monte threatened to leave Guatemala for cheaper climes, banana workers gave up 30 percent of their wages, 70 percent of their health benefits and two-thirds of the funds for their children's school.”
“But that's not the end of the story. On Feb. 25, 1,400 workers at seven Noboa plantations in Ecuador walked out, demanding decent wages, health care and legally mandated benefits. Quickly learning they needed legal recognition, they went back to work the next day. On May 6, with legal status established, 1,000 workers struck again, and they're still out.”
“...Noboa's response? At 2 a.m. on May 16, between 250 and 400 armed men descended on the striking plantations. Local police, U.S. and Danish trade union observers, the strikers and others gave the following account: The armed men, many wearing hoods, pulled workers out of their homes, beat them and shot several, one of whom lost his leg as a result.”
“...The Ecuadoran banana story challenges easy narratives of globalization. Too often Latin American workers show up in these analyses as victims. Yes, the banana workers are vulnerable. But they're also capable of concerted action to assert their legal right to organize and improve their situation. The bottom can bite back. More broadly, the banana companies' love affair with Ecuador refutes the romantic notion that globalization is somehow lifting all impoverished boats. We eaters of Ecuadoran bananas need to peel back the rhetoric and examine closely what we're being sold.”
“Bonita (The Noboa Company)”, US Labor Education in the Americas Project.
“Noboa's banana operations are completely non-union. The company has vigorously, and sometimes violently (e.g. in 2002), opposed workers organizing to form unions and gain better wages. Banana workers in Ecuador have called for a boycott of Bonita bananas.”
“Workers began organizing at the Noboa's Los Alamos plantations in February 2002, marking the first serious effort to organize in the Ecuadorian banana sector in years. After the Ecuadorian Labor Ministry approved union recognition for about 1,000 banana workers, the company fired union leaders. Workers then went on strike in May 2002. A couple of hours after midnight on May 16, 2002, hundreds of thugs and security guards, arrived at the plantations and began to violently evict the striking workers. A second attack took place later in the afternoon. Up to two dozen workers were injured in the attacks, some seriously by gunfire. One worker later had his leg amputated due to the shootings. Noboa later personally admitted to having hired the thugs.”
Reader: “Although bananas do have much lower pesticide residue than other fruits (due largely to their protective skin) the effects of pesticide use at the source make it far from "OK." The real impact of the bananas' weekly pesticide bath is on the workers and the farms. About a quarter of the price of bananas in the supermarket goes towards pesticides. Where I live, organic (Dole) bananas are about 79¢ a pound, compared to 59¢ for non-organic. Your pricing may vary, but for me it's a no-brainer.”
P.S. Fair Trade Bananas = HOPE!!
"Silvia Guadalupe Arevalo Navaez says that Fair Trade prices have allowed her to provide benefits for her workers in Ecuador. (Wiqan Ang for the Boston Globe)"
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