Bananas have played a role in history since B.C. however it wasn’t until its mass production in 1834 that it altered the modes of production, distribution and consumption on a global scale, replacing local social structures and cultures with capitalism, industrialism, and the imperialism brought on by those companies exploiting this commodity. What was once considered a luxury item available only to select few, transformed into a cheap product whose consumption would surpass that of apples in America. It became a staple in most homes, a symbol of healthy habits, marketed through mass media, doctors, literature, even in cereal boxes through coupons.
It drove modernization through innovation in order to solve for problems with distribution and transportation. Modernization came to underdeveloped countries with the incorporation of railroads, irrigation methods, and development of new industries such as those facilitating refrigeration as well as infrastructure to support the distribution and transportation through their fleets. It also allowed for scientific investigation, although mostly driven by the need to replace a dying species or eradicate the disease plaguing it, which spanned entire continents in an effort to collect, document and understand all species of banana.
All levels of human organization became interweaved into one system and it was this level of interconnectedness that had ripple effects on entire nations once the banana ‘ecosystem’ was threatened by the Panama disease. With the explosion of production around the 1880’s transnational corporations were largely reaping the gains unilaterally. Even though on the surface they provided employment it barely allowed workers to provide themselves with basic supplies as they were either underpaid or paid in coupons. Worker’s rights and health and safety standards were virtually non-existent as these corporations needed to keep labor costs cheap in order to satisfy their profit needs. In fact, pricing wars was what kept competitors at bay, and the quickest way to achieve this were at the expense of people and land. Entire plantations, thousands of acres were deserted and disposed of as soon as Panama disease entered, leaving behind less fertile soil. Instead of adopting preventative measures from keeping the land from getting diseased they opted for the cheaper option of tearing down new forests, destroying entire ecosystems and species, until no more land was left unaltered. Add to that pollution caused by pesticides, fungicides and insecticides to drinking water and the surrounding environment.
The ‘cost’ these banana producing countries had to pay would be felt even more after these corporations packed up and left; the profits made from these enterprise was repatriated to capitalist countries and never reinvested in those countries local economies.
An example of this effect is described in a paper that explains how the Philippines is faced with the inability to feed their own people as a result of having their productive and fertile lands used for cash crops such as bananas, and owned by either national elites or transnational agricultural corporations. These transnationals are more concerned with profits than farmers’ welfare, leaving the citizens of the Philippines without land to farm for their own subsistence.
All levels of human organization became interweaved into one system and it was this level of interconnectedness that had ripple effects on entire nations once the banana ‘ecosystem’ was threatened by the Panama disease. With the explosion of production around the 1880’s transnational corporations were largely reaping the gains unilaterally. Even though on the surface they provided employment it barely allowed workers to provide themselves with basic supplies as they were either underpaid or paid in coupons. Worker’s rights and health and safety standards were virtually non-existent as these corporations needed to keep labor costs cheap in order to satisfy their profit needs. In fact, pricing wars was what kept competitors at bay, and the quickest way to achieve this were at the expense of people and land. Entire plantations, thousands of acres were deserted and disposed of as soon as Panama disease entered, leaving behind less fertile soil. Instead of adopting preventative measures from keeping the land from getting diseased they opted for the cheaper option of tearing down new forests, destroying entire ecosystems and species, until no more land was left unaltered. Add to that pollution caused by pesticides, fungicides and insecticides to drinking water and the surrounding environment.
The ‘cost’ these banana producing countries had to pay would be felt even more after these corporations packed up and left; the profits made from these enterprise was repatriated to capitalist countries and never reinvested in those countries local economies.
An example of this effect is described in a paper that explains how the Philippines is faced with the inability to feed their own people as a result of having their productive and fertile lands used for cash crops such as bananas, and owned by either national elites or transnational agricultural corporations. These transnationals are more concerned with profits than farmers’ welfare, leaving the citizens of the Philippines without land to farm for their own subsistence.