Commodity Chain Analysis - Banana

The world continues to face a wide-scale food crisis. The effects of this crisis reach from the farmers who grow and raise the food to the very system of laws that are in place to govern the system itself. Food giants are reaching deep into their pockets for lobbying in order to take advantage of both the producers and the consumer all in the name of profit. Moreover, farmers are being driven to suicide, and the ecosystem’s livelihood is treading a fine line. Both Michael Pollan and Raj Patel bring to light these problems and offer suggestions to help lessen their severity. Though there are many philosophies on which they both agree, they both have their own ideas to fight back. Pollan seeks to challenge the consumer as an individual while

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There is a lack of sympathy and anger toward the working conditions of people working in agriculture and aquaculture. In the film Business of Hunger we saw the displacement of people for agricultural goods such as, peanuts which are water and land intensive. In this film we saw how people in nations such as Brazil and Africa are not even acknowledged by the western nations who consume the food they export. Not only in agriculture are the workers exploited but my recent discovery of the shrimp industry has exposed the truth of slavery and child labor with the capturing of shrimp. Asking where your food comes is just one simply way of being a better consumer. When you go into a store and look for organic or certified food we argued in class that constitutes being good consumers, but what do those labels really mean? When more than half of the shrimp consumed in the United States comes from Thailand which has the most exploitative conditions, it would be hard to even believe the label. Before this course I had no clue shrimp was coming from exploitative condition and during the shrimp case study, I mentioned to my friend she should not eat shrimp due to the overexploitation of the workers and the environmental degradation of the land. She told me her mom worked in a shrimp farm while in Vietnam, I was surprised and asked her how she was okay with eating the shrimp after her mom told her of the harsh conditions and she responded to me “It’s Vietnam, what do you expect.” These

John Soluri 's Banana Cultures: Agriculture, Consumption and Environmental Change in Honduras and the United States, (Which for spatial and repetitive purposes, I will refer to as Banana Cultures for the remainder of the paper), introduces the reader to a world of corporate greed, consumption, and environmental change using the history of the common, everyday fruit, the banana. He explores the various political occurrences, health problems, and changes in mass media through the rise of the consumption of the banana in the United States, and around the globe.

What many people only know about Christopher Columbus’s expedition is that he found the Americas. While this is true, he did find a completely new frontier that was unknown to the Old World, his findings re-shaped global consumption patterns from the seventeenth century. He found a New World filled with resources that the old world hasn’t seen before. When he found the new world he brought with him European plants and animal species that were foreign to the citizens of the New World. The Columbian Exchange introduced many foods that are still essential to consumption in today’s world along with the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries. The potato is a prime example of how the Columbian Exchange changed global consumption patterns because it was nutritious and had an abundant amount of calories in it and caused a mass population increase in areas where the potato was available. The use of slaves also increased exponentially when sugar cane was introduced. This was a very cheap, productive way to produce a large amount of sugar and it was used by many Old World countries. The findings of these new world products created a rise in global consumption and production because products were introduced to the both the New World and the Old World and there instantly became a large spike in the availability of products. Along with this, the old world decided to go out and get themselves involved in the New World because they saw an opportunity

I researched Metropolis Coffee Company and the sourcing process that their beans took to get into their shop. In this case, the coffee beans were sourced from countries across South America and Africa. This exercise displayed how we directly influence other people in society through our consumerism. More so, this exercise raises concern to the issues surrounding low wages towards the workers of these food products as well as harsh work conditions they are exposed to. If we were aware of our consumer influence for supporting ethical companies, we could effectively work to support companies whose product comes from an ethical means of

Today, I want to talk about bananas. This familiar yellow fruits is nutritious, delicious, and good for you. But, most importantly, there are a trillion fun facts about it on the internet. Banana Fact: “Americans eat an average of 27 pounds of bananas per person every year, making them the most popular fruit in the U.S.” Banana fact: “Research shows that eating bananas may lower the risk of heart attacks and strokes, as well as decrease the risk of getting some cancers.” Banana fact: “Banana farms use extremely harmful pesticides including diazinon and chlorpyrifos, which when consumed can cause: diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, convulsions, and comas.” Banana fact: “Tortoises and manatees off the coast of Costa Rica are facing extinction partly due to the fact that pesticide runoff from banana plantations kills the algae on which they feed.” Now you might be thinking, those things aren’t really my problem, I’ve never gotten sick from a banana and tortoises aren’t doing bad, I saw one at the zoo once. Why is any of this important? And to that, allow me to read you this sweet native american quote Ms. Barber probably found on facebook, a few clicks away from my banana facts. "Treat the earth well. It was not given to you by your

It’s no secret, Americans love their processed, energy-rich foods. And undeniably, this love affair has led to an obesity epidemic. In spite of the evidence against processed food, however, there are some who believe the problem may hold the key to the solution. David Freedman, author of “How Junk Food Could End Obesity,” criticizes Michael Pollan for his argument in support of unprocessed, local foods due its impracticality. Freedman’s criticism is based on the idea that “It makes a lot more sense to look for small, beneficial changes in food than it does to hold out for big changes in what people eat that have no realistic chance of happening” (Freedman Sec. 1). He contends that processed foods already play a big part in our diets, so instead of trying to expand the wholesome food business, we should try to make processed foods healthier. Freedman’s argument, however, overlooks many negative effects of processed foods and conventional farming. Michael Pollan’s wholesome food movements takes into account not only the obesity problem, but also the quality of the environment and the rights of farmers. Although Pollan’s solution to obesity may not seem the most efficient or time effective, the trades offs it provides in terms of environmental sustainability and the well-being of farmers outweigh the loss of efficiency.

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 Michoacan state in Mexico has become the world’s largest producer of avocadoes. Although this vegetable is grown on farms throughout this state, it is also tied to an integral network of trade and export to countries across the globe. In this essay, I will argue that like any commodity chain study, the production of the organic Hass avocado has an intricate production process, which for my commodity chain study begins in Uruapan, Mexico a town in the state of Michoacan. This analysis has indicated the crucial underlying links to trade, labour, and demand that the export of this vegetable has created throughout North America

Banana is a commodity that is widely used worldwide. Bananas are neither too extravagant, nor too expensive meaning that anyone and any level of socio-economic status can purchase them, from the very poor to the very wealthy. Bananas can be found at any brand name store, farmers market, or flea market. Bananas are commodities that are highly valued, traded, and desired. The success of the banana can be attributed to the fact that it can be grown and harvested all year long in different parts of the world. The success lies in the mass production, distribution and consumption of these goods. However, there is an ugly reality people are exploited, countries and people are complete dependent economically on bananas, and countries and terrain are destroyed by those corporations that benefit the most from the distribution of bananas.

The book 1493, Uncovering the New World Columbus Created, written by Charles C. Mann, discusses the affects the Columbian Exchange had throughout the globe, from tobacco and other cash crops, to future revolutions occurring in the eighteenth century and beyond, Published in 2011 by Vintage Books, a division of Random House Inc, this 557 page book gives a thorough overview about how globalization caused by Christopher Columbus and his voyage to the New World in 1492 affected the diet, society, and economics of the world. One unique feature about this nonfiction book is how it's written, with a personal story given by the author, and then going in depth about the evidence of events and statistics. The countless pictures and maps help support the author’s written work by providing a basis of understanding for the reader. Benefits and consequences of global interaction are the focus in this book. Instead of referring back to ideas that form many people’s view of the first event of globalization, Mann uses evidence from around the globe to give a well rounded argument in each section of the book. With the previous knowledge I gained from AP World History, I believe that this book ties many important

Globalization deals with the break down of traditional boundaries in the face of increasingly global financial and cultural trends. It is a process that results in the growing interconnectedness of the world. Globalization is understood as the force that promotes the global interdependence of economies, political systems, and societies. It creates a complex system of exchanges of goods, services, people, wealth, knowledge, and beliefs. Both Timothy Brook’s Vermeer’s Hat and Sidney Mintz’s Sweetness and Power deal with the role of commodities in world history. Mintz analyzes the history of sugar production and consumption in Europe. Mintz discusses how the fall of sugar as a luxurious and exotic product to a necessity for the most common of the working class was able to command a revolution in diet and lifestyle, during industrialization and the rise of capitalism. Brook tells the story of tobacco’s route from the Americas to Europe. As tobacco became a commercial crop, it allowed for a new system of trade, further connecting Europe, the Americas, and Africa. Both works highlight the importance of each respective commodity in the linking of the global community. The integration of both sugar and tobacco in global trade had a profound impact on the power structures of society in the seventeenth century.

In the book, Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World (2008), Dan Koeppel talks about the historical background of banana. He also talks about its’ importance to African farmers and its’ importance to Latin America and Asia in economic terms. He describes that a disease called blight has caused serious threats to banana crops, as it is rapidly destroying the banana crops around the world (Koeppel, 2008). In this book, the author describes the role of two mega companies; Dole and Chiquita. They are committing massacres in the name of producing cheap banana. In Latin, America Chiquita is exploiting the labor. It also supports

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.