Key Question) – How does the global trade in bananas reflect injustice in free trade arrangements?
“Although bananas may only look like a fruit, they represent a wide variety of environmental, economic, social and political problems. The banana trade symbolises economic imperialism, injustices in the global trade market, and the globalisation of the agricultural economy. Bananas are also number four on the list of staple crops in the world and one of the biggest profit makers in supermarkets, making them critical for economic and global food security. As one of the first tropical fruits to be exported, bananas were a cheap way to bring “the tropics” to North America and Europe. Bananas have become such a common, inexpensive grocery item that
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Historical journalist, Peter Chapman reminds us in his book about the history of the banana industry how for decade’s one multinational, United Fruit Company (recognised in modern society as Chiquita) was often condemned for bribing Latin American government officials in exchange for preferential treatment, enslaving workers, inspiring an abusive monopoly and inciting US coups against small nations; an event now recognised as the “banana republic’s” of Central America.
Rebecca Cohen accentuates how “the United Fruit Company thrived on the lack of unity, poverty, and corrupt governments in Central America.” TNC’s were able to acquire the best land and assimilation of the entire production and supply processes which made them formidable and highly influential establishments.
To a considerable extent, transnational corporations have a large element of control over markets and can influence political decisions. For instance, fruit companies, such as Dole and Chiquita brands International have always dominated plantation monoculture whilst strong vertical and horizontal integration have enabled economies of scale and secured market access worldwide. In effect, Dole and Chiquita have become inheritors of the empires that their predecessors
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For example, in 2013, one in three bananas sold in the UK carried the Fairtrade certification mark. This demonstrates the appetite for food traded on fairer terms and is seen as a discernible shift in consumer awareness and behaviour.
On the other hand, since just 5 companies: Dole, Del Monte, Chiquita, Fyffes and Noboa control some 80% of the International banana trade (in accordance to Banana Link, a UK based organisation campaigning for fairer and sustainable banana trade), we can perceive how workers are being exploited by a “race to the bottom.”
In view of the fact that low prices are paid to suppliers by supermarkets, this has caused many of the larger companies to relocate their plantations to West Africa as companies search for lower labour costs and weaker legislation. Employers usually sub-contract labour so plantation work is increasingly casual. The work involves long shifts, in typically hazardous conditions and many workers fail to earn enough to cover their basic needs. Child labour, gender discrimination and other problems accompany this drive for lower consumer
“Liberals believed in free markets and where made up of many industry leaders.” (Class Discussion). A foreign consumer of banana’s on the other hand wouldn’t agree with this theory of Latin American superiority and patriotism. This character would believe it is a good thing that foreign countries are exploiting Latin America because he is purchasing the product. “Without these companies, we wouldn't have bananas.” (Class Discussion) These consumers believe that there is no harm being done and possibly it is actually good thats being done to the Latin American economy. Distinctively from these characters listed above, Jose Marti would one hundred percent agree with Calle 13’s “latinoamerica.” In Jose Marti’s “Our America” he explains how Latin Americans must not show weakness but patriotism, that they should be proud to be Latinos, and that hard work is the only way to move forward. In “Our America” Jose Marti states: “Those without faith in their country are seven-month weaklings. Because they have not courage, they deny it to the others.” This is a direct attack to those who lack patriotism and are not proud to be Latin American, he states that they are the weak link. This idea directly correlates to what Calle 13 portrays in
The Brazilian acai berry has been a food staple for low income families for years and a cultural symbol for generations. This berry is vital in Brazil, where it is farmed and, until recently had a relatively small market. However, after an Oprah interview the demand for acai has become an international affair. The rising demand has created a free market; however the once inexpensive food staple has become too expensive for the low income families. This report will analyse the current markets advantages and disadvantages, followed by two possible government intervention models. The examined interventions will be export tariff and price ceiling.
During the second half of the twentieth century, when the Cold War was on its midst, the United States played an important role in world affairs. The increasing military power that the United States had during the Cold War, allowed it to influence the political decisions that many countries had during this time. The United States directly opposed the idea of communism, which the Soviet Union promoted. This conflict between this two great powers, lasted for five decades, and it tremendously affected the political ideologies of the world. Both countries tried to push their political and economic interest to as many nations as they could, especially those close to their borders. During this time, Guatemala was undergoing a social revolution with communist ideas. The revolution happened as a response to the social injustice committed by the United Fruit Company. The United Fruit Company started to lose land, due to a land reform passed b...
Even though bananas may simply look like a fruit, they signify a wide variety of environmental, economic, social, and political problems. The banana trade injustices in the global trade market, symbolizes economic imperialism, and the worldwide spread of the agricultural economy. Bananas are also number four on the list of staple crops in the world and one of the major profit makers in supermarkets, making them vital for economic and global food security. Being one of the many first tropical fruits to be exported, bananas were a cheap way to bring “the tropics” to North America and Europe. Bananas have become such a widespread, inexpensive grocery item that we often forget where they come from and how they got here.
Along the Caribbean coastline a banana business became a United States capitalist empire, which shaped the course of twentieth-century Central American history and nationalism (Langley 33). As American businessmen and entrepreneurs had their eye on profits they turned to Central America and the Caribbean as an untapped or uncultivated abundant source of bananas. Thus the “banana men” stormed the weak political fronts in this area, such as Nicaragua and Honduras, to begin their venture of bananas by taking advantage of the political and economic climate. These were areas prone to exploitation because of their weak political systems, which eventually lead to the capitalist expansion and market driven destruction of the region by the “banana men”.
Since it was first discovered by European explorers, Latin America has supplied raw materials and labor to Europe and other locations around the world. Eduardo Galeano writes about the exploitation of native Latin Americans in his 1973 book Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent. Galeano takes a historical approach and examines colonial and post-colonial interactions between Europeans and Latin Americans. He asserts that the native Latin Americans were essentially powerless to fight this exploitation because of the dominance of the European powers. In his 2008 book Andean Cocaine: The Making of a Global Drug, Paul Gootenberg writes about the discovery of cocaine and its transition from a regional good to a global commodity. Gootenberg combines history and economics in his view of the relationships between the two powers. Unlike Galeano, he shows a side of Latin American history in which the native people of Latin America had power, however limited, to control their positions in the economic system imposed by the Europeans. Gootenberg accepts Galeano’s theory of dominance as a starting point but complicates it by including the agency of the local people of Latin America, especially Peru. Gootenberg shifts the focus of his book from the national and European players to the local Latin American actors involved in the cocaine commodity chain—from growers and harvesters to refiners and distributors. This theory involves more of the disparate components present in the economies of Latin America; therefore, it is a better way to describe historical relationships between Latin America and Europe.
The cocoa industry is made up of small scale family farms with low economic standings and a few large scale plantations which control the cocoa market. Due to large scale cocoa plantations small scale farms are struggling economically which has resulted in a fragile unsustainable society. The use of hybrid cocoa crops has made it easy for large scale plantation to control the market and remove negotiating leverage from small family farms. Family farms have grown accustomed to the use of child labor, and as a result have negatively influenced the education of many children in major cocoa producing countries. Family small scale farms have had to compete with better yielding crops and little wealth, in response they have grown accustomed to child
In places like Africa and Brazil where they grow cocoa beans the economy is very unstable and without the help of fair trade the farms don't get enough money to sustain them self. Such as the average age for cocoa farming is 45-50 and more and more people are looking for other jobs because the
Fair Trade can be defined as “a trading partnership, based on dialogue, transparency, and respect, that seeks greater equity in international trade. It contributes to sustainable development by offering better trading conditions to, and securing the rights of, marginalized producers and workers – especially in the South. Fair trade organizations (backed by consumers) are engaged actively in supporting producers, awareness raising and in campaigning for changes in the rules and practice of conventional trade”. (Lyon and Moberg 2010) By encouraging more ethical consumer choice, Fair Trade challenges processes which devalue and exploit people in disadvantaged positions and the environment by aiming to re-embed commodity circuits within ecological and social relations. (Lyon and Moberg 2010) Established and enforced by Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), Fair Trade is a voluntary system with its success driven by the wi...
Furthermore, to help stop these human rights violations, companies can simply not purchase from plantations and sources with child labour and slavery. Their buying contributes to the growth of the plantation owner, as it encourages them to keep supplying them with product regardless of the circumstances faced by the children; the rapid growth increases demand of more children to be working in the farms. Clearly, major chocolate companies must stop denying and being oblivious towards the facts; they must start to change farming practices, as they are highly unethical, even though, they do not have direct control over them. Most importantly, the documentary sheds light on a hidden side of a delicious delicacy, as it unveils the truth about the cruelty and illegal practices these companies indulge within, while pretending to be clueless. Nevertheless, major chocolate companies can easily fix the problem they have created by accepting the reality and starting their revolution for change within their
The banana was a way for the US to get behind the tactics of banana farming, because they truly believed that the people were beneath them, Soluri goes as far as to say "slothful" (2). The English are very accurate when it came to their comment on mass consumerism of the era; Americans have to have the best. That is the whole point of the Miss Chiquita banana, not only did companies want to sell a banana, they wanted to sell you the best banana; some bananas are better than others (186). This caused a major issue in Honduras where companies would rather abandon a land, that spend time to fix it due to the over-cultivation. Workers were forced to become migrant and follow the fruit company jobs or risk being unemployed (85). Things like this are still happening today in our own culture. The popular company, Walmart, is famous for building stores in communities, and then tearing them down to rebuild them several blocks away forcing many out of work while the reconstruction occurs, and destroying the land it was built upon (The High Cost of Low
World trade is dominated by three companies, Dole Foods, Chiquita Brands and Fresh Del Monte Produce, with over 100 years’ presence in banana plantation production in Central America and Colombia, and together controlling 65% of world exports. They are followed by the Ecuatorian company Noboa, which controls another 10%, and the European company Fyffes, which controls some 6-7%.
Two common products that are Fair Trade Certified are Cocoa and Coffee, each of which contains problems that producers face but gain benefits from Fair Trade. Fairtrade International states that cocoa is grown in tropical regions of more than 30 developing countries, such as West Africa and Latin America, providing an estimate of 14 million people with livelihood. Fair Trade Standards for cocoa includes no forced labor of any kind - including child labor and environmental standards restricts the use of chemicals and encourage sustainability. A problem cocoa producers face is the lack of access to markets and financing. Since cocoa is a seasonal crop, producers need loans to meet the needs for planting and cultivating their crop. With this in mind,...
As the call for cacao increases globally, the price of cacao is also increasing at a rapid rate as cocoa growers in Africa and South America struggle to meet the demand, which is an extremely relevant aspect of the macro-environment for the chocolate market. Many factors contribute to the supply problem- many cocoa growers in Africa, particularly the Ivory Coast (the world’s biggest cocoa-producing nation) are underpaid, and their share in the profit of chocolate products is increasing, with West African cocoa growers seeing earning on average 3.5% to 6.4% of the total retail value of the products (The Guardian, 2013). This results in less productive workers, and is also resulting in a decrease in the number of emerging cocoa famers, as it is often no lo...
Fair trade began as early as 1940’s after World War II with churches selling crafts to wealthier people in order to aid those in need. To encourage economic expansion Western Europe began importing goods from Eastern Europe. Meanwhile in the US, the Mennonite Central Committee created a crafts-selling institution that was later called ‘Ten Thousand Villages.’ Such organizations planned to reverse the profits received by the middle men to the craftsman in developing counties. In 1988 when the value of coffee heavily dropped, the Max Havelaar Foundation was the first to begin independent fair labeling in the Netherlands. Other British groups began to join and form the Fairtrade Foundation, which later became the Fairtrade Labelling Organizations (FLO) in 1997 as more nations united. In addition, United States opened its own fair labelling organization in 1998, named the TransFair USA. Nonetheless many American consumers are unaware of fair trade labeling unlike Europe and United Kingdom.