United Fruit Company and the Banana Republics
I love bananas. They are by far my favorite fruit, but who would have known that they have such a deeply rooted, and troubled history? Today bananas are the world's fourth most consumed food. Yet before the 20th century, bananas were a rare, even unknown commodity but since the rise of companies, namely United Fruit and their "banana republics", bananas have taken the world by storm. Yet, what is a banana republic, and no I do not mean the high-end clothing stores.
A banana republic as defined by Webster's Dictionary is "any small, usually Latin American, country that is politically unstable and has a one-crop economy controlled by foreign capital". In 1899, the United Fruit Company was formed by a merger and in 1984 it would become renamed the Chiquita Brands we know today. Companies like United Fruit bought huge swathes of lands in Central America and northern South America to grow bananas in climates that were perfectly suited for their growth and where land was cheap. United Fruit was an example of a vertically integrated monopoly. The banana industry proved hugely profitable when United Fruit not only grew the bananas, but controlled the railroads, the shipping, the selling, and even the local governments of where they grew the fruit. At its height, United Fruit Co. controlled 90% of the banana market and owned over 3.5 million acres of land in Latin America. To ensure that countries in which they owned their plantations and farms were cooperative, United Fruit frequently resorted to staging coups and regime changes by funding opposition that was more sympathetic to its business. For example, Guatemala's government was ripe for exploitation in the early 20th century as it proved to be one of Latin America's weakest and most corruptible countries. This provided United Fruit Co. a strong foothold in the country but in the 1950s when the left-wing, democratic president, Jacobo Arbenz tried to loosen United's grip on the country, United Fruit's dominance in the country became threatened. After convincing the United States government with bribery and ties to the company, in order to engineer a coup to overthrow the democratically elected president, Guatemala became embroiled in chaos and civil unrest which has seen thousands die and continues to persist to this day. The legacy of United Fruit Company and the banana republics are still seen to this day, as many countries that could have been democratic and at peace had those prospects whisked away by greed.
This was all so long ago and surely good ole' Chiquita is still not up to its old tricks but that assumption would be wrong. In the 90s and 2000s, Chiquita paid terrorist groups to protect their plantations and workers from paramilitary groups in a very unstable, Colombia. These Chiquita-funded "death squads" have been known to murder families and wreak havoc across Colombia. Chiquita has since been sued by the United States and families of the victims of the terror groups it gave money to. Chiquita is not the only banana company with a dark history either; Dole Bananas, then known as the Standard Fruit Company overthrew the government of Hawaii in a similar manner to how Chiquita overthrew many Central American countries' governments. Perhaps this will change your mind the next time you consider buying a Chiquita banana or maybe it will not, for me I often times forget and just buy the cheapest banana I can find. It is sort of crazy how much a company can get away with and still hold such a big part of an industry, likely due to the fact that the average consumer will value the best price for a product more than the moral costs of buying said product.
Sources;
https://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/02/books/review/Kurtz-Phelan-t.html
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/where-we-got-term-banana-republic-180961813/
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/banana-republic
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_republic
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Fruit_Company
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiquita_Brands_International
A banana republic as defined by Webster's Dictionary is "any small, usually Latin American, country that is politically unstable and has a one-crop economy controlled by foreign capital". In 1899, the United Fruit Company was formed by a merger and in 1984 it would become renamed the Chiquita Brands we know today. Companies like United Fruit bought huge swathes of lands in Central America and northern South America to grow bananas in climates that were perfectly suited for their growth and where land was cheap. United Fruit was an example of a vertically integrated monopoly. The banana industry proved hugely profitable when United Fruit not only grew the bananas, but controlled the railroads, the shipping, the selling, and even the local governments of where they grew the fruit. At its height, United Fruit Co. controlled 90% of the banana market and owned over 3.5 million acres of land in Latin America. To ensure that countries in which they owned their plantations and farms were cooperative, United Fruit frequently resorted to staging coups and regime changes by funding opposition that was more sympathetic to its business. For example, Guatemala's government was ripe for exploitation in the early 20th century as it proved to be one of Latin America's weakest and most corruptible countries. This provided United Fruit Co. a strong foothold in the country but in the 1950s when the left-wing, democratic president, Jacobo Arbenz tried to loosen United's grip on the country, United Fruit's dominance in the country became threatened. After convincing the United States government with bribery and ties to the company, in order to engineer a coup to overthrow the democratically elected president, Guatemala became embroiled in chaos and civil unrest which has seen thousands die and continues to persist to this day. The legacy of United Fruit Company and the banana republics are still seen to this day, as many countries that could have been democratic and at peace had those prospects whisked away by greed.
This was all so long ago and surely good ole' Chiquita is still not up to its old tricks but that assumption would be wrong. In the 90s and 2000s, Chiquita paid terrorist groups to protect their plantations and workers from paramilitary groups in a very unstable, Colombia. These Chiquita-funded "death squads" have been known to murder families and wreak havoc across Colombia. Chiquita has since been sued by the United States and families of the victims of the terror groups it gave money to. Chiquita is not the only banana company with a dark history either; Dole Bananas, then known as the Standard Fruit Company overthrew the government of Hawaii in a similar manner to how Chiquita overthrew many Central American countries' governments. Perhaps this will change your mind the next time you consider buying a Chiquita banana or maybe it will not, for me I often times forget and just buy the cheapest banana I can find. It is sort of crazy how much a company can get away with and still hold such a big part of an industry, likely due to the fact that the average consumer will value the best price for a product more than the moral costs of buying said product.
Sources;
https://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/02/books/review/Kurtz-Phelan-t.html
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/where-we-got-term-banana-republic-180961813/
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/banana-republic
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_republic
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Fruit_Company
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiquita_Brands_International
That's really interesting! I never really pay much attention to where my fruits come from either, only whether or not they're organic. I never really thought much about what these fruit plantations were like either. I guess when it's your country's main economy, you'd do anything to make sure it thrives. The consumer's benefits from buying a cheaper banana in their minds outweigh the moral costs of what it took to make that banana, which is why so many companies worldwide are able to get away with things like this. It's just like how all these giant corporations outsource worldwide and in countries that use child labor or do not have any labor laws/regulations. It's pretty unfortunate, but these facts often don't stop people from buying products made by these corporations.
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