The banana is a rare thing. It is not a fruit and does not grow on trees. It is a herb and grows into a plant with a strong, fibrous stem. Although the developed world loves “dessert” bananas, it is the non-sweet green cooking banana that keeps many people alive during the ‘hungry season’ when one crop has finished and a new one is not ready to come. Harvest. Bananas grow year-round and are therefore a vital staple to combat bleak periods between harvests. India is the largest producer of bananas, followed by China. These two countries consume most of their banana crop internally.
When we look at the major banana exporting countries, we leave the realm of subsistence diets and major food crops and enter instead the territory of big business, exploitation, environmental devastation, corporate greed and murder. The four main banana exporters are Ecuador, Costa Rica, the Philippines and Colombia. Of these big four, only the Philippines escaped the malign influence of the United Fruit Company.
The United Fruit Company was formed in 1899 and would become a massive corporate empire that would last until 1975 when its CEO, Eli M Black, jumped off the 44th floor of the Pan Am Building in New York City. During that 76-year span, the United Fruit Company ran Central America as its own personal fiefdom and gave O Henry’s phrase ‘banana republic’ a startling new meaning.
The company was behind several regime changes in countries such as Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador and Costa Rica. Their boats were used during the failed counterrevolutionary attempt at the Bay of Pigs in Cuba. The famous massacre of strikers in Ciénaga, Colombia on December 6, 1928 was the work of the United Fruit Company pulling the strings of the Colombian government. It seemed that there was no outrage, no political machination that the United Fruit Company could not pull off. The company had powerful friends in the Boston elite who convinced successive presidents that the company’s interests were the same as the country’s. And the striking workers were anarchists and communists who had to be shown a firm hand.
Knowing this puts into perspective the current distrust and dislike of the United States among many of Latin America’s leaders.
The United Fruit Company really pushed bananas. At home they aggressively advertised the miraculous benefits of food and in Central America they monopolized banana production. They often succeeded in persuading Central American governments that not only should they be given vast areas of forest for free, but also that the aforementioned Central American governments should finance the construction of extensive railway lines to help with the rapid movement of the banana crop.
And what did the average plantation worker get? Something very similar to the hell described by Steinbeck in his work the grapes of wrath. They worked 10 hours a day, 7 days a week, did not have access to proper medical care and were paid in ‘scrip’ that could only be exchanged at the company store. In short, it was slavery for thousands. And the US government turned a blind eye. And the American housewife buying bananas had no idea of the blood and injustice perpetrated on the people of Central and South America to get bananas onto supermarket shelves.
The environment was the other big loser. As the banana grew in popularity in the United States, more and more Central American forests were cleared to meet the demand. The land was subjected to increasingly harsh pesticides to keep disease at bay. This contaminated vital water supplies and damaged the rest of the forest.
Peter Chapman tells it excellently and in gruesome detail in his book Bananas: How the United Fruit Company Shaped the World.
After reading the book I am reluctant to buy another banana in a supermarket. Also, I much prefer the taste of bananas that have ripened naturally, not in a hot room. So I’ll wait until I go on holiday to India or Thailand again to eat another banana with a clear conscience.