The Injustices Of Banana Cultivation On People And The Environment

Such unnatural crop selection slowly transforms our lush lands into monocultures, depleting the soil, harming the bees and other wildlife. To one mono-crop—soya bean—Patel devotes a whole chapter of his book, titled Glycine Max, that exposes the massive industry of soya bean production and post-production: from the soybean oil, to food for the cattle, to the enormously popular food additive lecithin. Hence, against the superpower of those who stand behind the soya bean business, one way to rebell, according to Patel, is to start cooking from the scrap, from simple ingredients and not prepacked foods brimming with additives. However, it is easier said than done,”I don't really like Ranch dressing, but can't seem to not have a salad without it” claims my friend

I have chosen to investigate the commodity chain of bananas from the company Dole and their contributions to spatial justice. This product interests me because I have previously worked in a grocery store and have seen the great rate at which these bananas are sold on a daily basis. I am interested in seeing how the mass consumption of this product affects the different locations attributed to the commodity chain of Dole bananas. I am curious as to what consequences or benefits the countries that house the banana plantations receive as a result of growing bananas, as well as the benefits that Dole receives from sourcing their bananas internationally effects. From what I have read so far, the commodity chain of Dole bananas starts in countries located in Latin America and Caribbean, such as Costa Rica, Columbia, Ecuador, Guatemala and Honduras. For the purposes of this assignment I will be tracing the bananas that are grown and packed at the Bananito Farm located in the community of Bananito, just south of Limon in Costa Rica; a community designed and constructed by Dole for the workers of their largest banana farm in Costa Rica. Once the

Berry talks about how consumers should know where the food they eat comes from and should learn to adapt in producing their own food. His main idea is “eat responsibly” (47). Food is not considered by farming

We eat bananas almost every day; however, most of us do not really know where these fruits come from. In Banana Cultures, John Soluri focuses on the relationship between banana production in Honduras, especially in the North Coast between roughly 1870 and 1975, and banana consumption in the U. S.. He focuses on growing, protecting, transporting, and mass marketing of bananas. John Soluri integrates Agroecology, anthropology, political economy, and history in order to trace the symbolic growth of the banana industry. The author admits that his work is highly interdisciplinary, as a desirable trait in the academic world. The study incorporates a wide range of sources, including manuscript census data from Honduras, fruit company records, published scientific records, Honduran and U.S government correspondence, oral testimonies, and ephemera from U.S mass culture. Throughout his work, he combines elements of geography, biology, social history, foreign affairs, and environmental history. Soluri also looks at labor practices and worker’s lives, changing gender roles on the banana plantations, and the effects of pesticides in the Honduran environment and people. His central argument is that United States consumption of bananas causes major social, political, and environmental change in Honduras. In addition, he looks at the banana pathogens, the ways the United States treated these fungal diseases, and the terribly detrimental effects these new treatments had on the farmers on

The late twentieth-century and early twenty-first-century trends towards the continuing integration of the world economy have attracted the attention of geographers who seek to assess the impacts that globalization processes have at various geographic scales.1 The banana has a rich history of globalization, and for this reason, this essay will explore the commodity chain that shows the trajectory that the banana takes in order to be produced in the Caribbean, Latin America and elsewhere, then transported through the sea, next entering grocery stores throughout the world and finally consumed in the homes of millions. Commodity chain analyses allow modern day geographers to understand the process in which a resource is

“Historically, the banana trade symbolized economic imperialism, injustices in the global trade market, and the exploitation of agriculture-dependent third-world countries”(2). However, they remain to be one of the most profitable items in grocery stores. Making bananas crucial to economic and global food stability for countries all over the world. They are the third largest staple crop, coming only after wheat and coffee. Since bananas are such a sought after fruit, many companies have gone to extensive lengths in the to fight for a share of the market. Chiquita Brands International was one of the pioneer companies to try and globalize bananas. They took a risk and made some very critical mistakes along the way.

This photo journal assignment was very interesting and educational. It helped me look outside the box and to really relate geography to my everyday life. My first relatable topic that I came in contact with during this assignment was the process of evaporation. At Dry Creek park in Modesto, CA, I witnessed evaporation taking place in the creek. I have been going to this park for quite some time and in the summer, water levels decrease drastically. Evaporation is one of the four phases in the hydrologic cycle (water cycle). According to our Geosystems Eighth Edition book, Christopherson say, “Water travels endlessly through the hydrosphere, atmosphere, lithosphere and biosphere. [...] Currents of water, vapor, ice and energy are flowing

More and more health-conscious individuals are scrutinizing the source of the food their family consumes. However, even the most conscientious consumer is not fully aware of the exhaustive efforts and struggle to get a juicy, ripe strawberry or that plump tomato in the middle of winter, even in Florida. These foods are harvested and picked mostly by seasonal and migrant farm workers. Migrant workers hail, in large part, from Mexico and the Caribbean, and their families often travel with them. Migrant farm workers must endure challenging conditions so that Americans can have the beautiful selection of berries, tomatoes, and other fresh foods often found at places like a farmer’s market or a traditional super market. Seasonal and

This means that for all the other foods that I ate, I have no certainty of where they came from and who actually produced them. Some could have been sourced locally and could have been produced by immigrant farmworkers or they could have been produced across the globe by other farmworkers. The orange and the pear were the only foods that had a sticker demonstrating their country of origin and the company that produced them. The pear that I ate came from the US (place not specified) and the orange that I ate came from this family-owned farm from California. The website of the family-owned farm (Booth Ranch) highlighted its sustainable practices, its focus on freshness, its focus on community outreach, and the products’ nutritional benefits. The website showed an idyllic pasture full of beautiful orange trees being managed by a tight-knit white family. However, aside from a few photos, there was barely any mention of the farm workers and there was no mention in the website of treating their farmworkers

While globalization is a relatively new phenomenon in theory, but not necessarily in history, as of 2009 it has created transnational corporations linked to government, international economic institutions, and non-government organizations. (Steger 67). With this definition bananas are a textbook example of the globalization of tropical fruit commodities. The transnational corporations of the United States, most notably Chiquita, Dole and Del Monte, have been linked to the governments of Latin and South America, the World Trade Organization, and the “organic” fruit movement. By tracing the path from banana plantations to supermarket it becomes clear how the “morals” of capitalism have permeated

Six firms dominated the banana industry in the early 1990’s, three from Europe and three from the United States. In 1994, the three United States producers, Chiquita, Dole, and Del Monte, accounted for approximately 72.4% of world banana sales. Chiquita accounted for 48% of worldwide banana sales and 66.4% of banana sales of the three U.S. producers.

The author of the book, “The Fate of the Fruit that Changed the World” (2008), Dan Koeppel, who is a famous journalist describes in a fascinating way banana’s cultural importance, threats associated with the crops of banana in the future and banana’ history. Banana is a very delicious fruit and is eaten all over the world. Banana is one of the world’s fourth largest harvests in the world. Dole and Chiquita are eminent American based distributors and producers of banana. They are claiming to produce the banana on low price. In this book, Koeppel discusses the risks associated to the plantation of banana around the world. He also discusses the fact that due to blight, the plantation of banana is destroyed (Koeppel, 2008). He points out that the farmers and the producers have no insight at all regarding this matter (Koeppel, 2008).

Foreign nationals bring with them the tastes and delights from their own country. Presently, Americans have such a wide selection of foods to choose from including but not limited to Mexican, Chinese, Italian, Greek, Thai, and Japanese. In the agricultural industry, researchers have taken domestic plants and bred them with international plants to create a more desirable embryonic plant which grows to have only the best characteristics of the two plants. This idealistic technology wouldn't have been deemed possible if it wasn't subject to the vast array of cultural diversity to challenge the standard characteristics of domestic vegetations.

Welcome to the age of an agricultural revolution as everyday biotechnology continues to bring innovation to human’s most basic needs – food. Food is essential to any living organism, providing energy for our production and nutrients for our protection. Without this fundamental element, life cannot exist. Our lack to produce our own energy, like plants, causes us to become dependent on others for survival. Humans existence is attributed only to the million years of evolution our food source underwent to sustain our survival. Changing the primary nature of our food source, whether it is plant or animal, directs mankind in a dangerous future if our food dependency is permanently hampered. Welcome to the age of an agricultural devolution

Venezuela exports a variety of agricultural products including: corn, coffee, cocoa, sorghum, rice, tobacco, sugarcane, oilseeds, and cotton. In the 1960s, corn surpassed coffee as Venezuela’s leading crop. Despite the production decline of corn in the 1970s, production once again increased in the mid-1980s due to new agricultural policies. Before corn became the leading crop in Venezuela, major cash crops included both cocoa and coffee. These two crops dominated the economy of Venezuela in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries just after Venezuela’s independence from Spain. Over