Banana: The Fate of the Fruit that Changed the World

Conglolese Rebel Leader and the Deadliest Banana Disease (Updated)

I just got back from a trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo, where I was on assignment for National Geographic. More on that in the coming weeks. We were in the central part of the country. Eastern Congo - along the borders of Uganda, Tanzania, and Rwanda - has been locked in fighting for years now, and the battles have ratcheted up since last August, resulting in a huge humanitarian crisis, with hundreds of thousands of people being forced into refugee camps, along with thousands of deaths.

The region is where people depend on bananas as part of their diet more than anywhere else in the world, and the fruit there is being attacked by what is probably the most virulent banana disease: a fungus bacterium called Xanthomonas wilt. Its spread can be slowed through clean-farming techniques - making sure tools and clothing are kept free of dirt as they move from village to village - and there have been extensive informational campaigns designed to carry this information to local families, who would face starvation if the disease hit their crops.

The image above is of Laurent Nkunda, the leader of the Congolese rebels. It appeared last year in the pages of a magazine called Jeune Afrique (Young Africa). He's vowing that he will take his forces all the way to Kinshasa, the Congolese capital. His fortunes have since changed, but the disease hasn't - and the poster behind him, which advertises how to stop it, will probably outlast his reign.

Update: Nkunda's reign is over. He was arrested yesterday in Rwanda, his former state sponsor. The Guardian has a good piece on it.

Obama's Pick For Attorney General Has Banana Problems

Eric Holder, Chiquita defender and Obama pick for U.S. Attorney General.

I've gotten dozens of emails in the 48 hours since Eric Holder emerged as President-elect Barack Obama's choice as U.S. Attorney General. To summarize: Holder is a former deputy U.S. attorney general in the Clinton administration who has been described as a "long-time Obama advisor." He was part of the committee that helped Obama choose Joe Biden as vice-presidential nominee. Holder would be the nation's first African-American attorney general. He's currently in private practice with the law firm of Covington & Burling, which is where the banana trouble begins.

Here's the key part of the Wikipedia page on Holder that explains it (I urge you to read the whole entry, which summarizes his entire career.)

"In 2004, Holder helped negotiate an agreement with the Justice Department for Chiquita Brands International in a case that involved Chiquita's payment of "protection money" to the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, a group on the U.S. government's list of terrorist organizations. In the agreement, Chiquita's officials pleaded guilty and paid a fine of $25 million. Holder represents Chiquita in the civil action that grew out of this criminal case."

The civil action mentioned in the article is a lawsuit on behalf of the families of seven missionaries who were murdered by Colombia's United Self Defense Forces (AUC). The suit alleges that since Chiquita was funding the AUC at the times the killings occurred, the banana company bears some responsibility for them.

I agree, and I've blogged about the issue numerous times. Here are links to some of the previous entries:

• In May, the CBS News program "60 Minutes" did a segment on the Colombia-Chiquita story. It included an interview with Chiquita CEO Fernando Aguirre. Read (and view the interview) here.  

• Here's the entry about the lawsuits that Holder and his law firm, Covington and Burling, are defending Chiquita against. 

• The families of U.S. victims of the AUC aren't the only ones suing Chiquita. Similar cases have been brought by 400 Colombian families. My November, 2007 entry on is here.

So what to do about this?

Silence isn't an option. Anyone who reads this blog knows where my political sympathies lie. I was, and remain, and Obama supporter. I know that the Washington merry-go-round - and especially when it comes to attorneys - makes for strange bedfellows. I don't know if I'd excuse the fact that Holder represented Chiquita in negotiating the terms of the fine it paid to the Justice Department. But I know that representing the company against the families of the AUC victims is inexcusable. As my colleague Jason Glaser - whose upcoming documentary, "The Affected," directly illustrates how dangerous the lives of banana workers in Latin America are, even when they don't have to deal with terrorism - notes, "isn't it about time we have a lawyer in [the U.S. attorney general's] position from a plaintiff's firm [italics mine], someone who may have at one time served the interests of a mammal as opposed to a corporate entity?"

The liberal/progressive community is going to do a lot of hand-wringing about this. It needs to do more. We elected Obama - and we need to keep him honest. To fail to do so would be to write him the same kind of blank check that supporters of the previous administration handed over to the officials they elected. Holder owes us an explanation, though I don't see how any words from him could be convincing - especially to those in Latin America whose trust we have already lost. Getting Chiquita to agree  to agree to full disclosure and restitution would be an appropriate way for Holder to spend his remaining weeks in the private sector - and a good start.

So here's what to do.

First, learn about Holder - not just about his actions regarding Chiquita, but his entire career. Decide for yourself whether he deserves a pass. Then, use the network - the one we used so successfully to get Obama elected. Blog, Twitter, and email the links about Holder that you think are most important, good or bad (my Twitter handle is "soulbarn", if you want to follow my posts.) The point is to make sure the information gets out there. The most important thing we can do right now is establish, early, that transparency is one of the things we voted for on November 4th.  Our ability to spread this information quickly, and spark a public debate about it - rather than use this information simply in a destructive way - is key.  

Here are some good places to find out more about Holder, and to discuss the nomination. I invite you to add more links in the comment thread.

• Dan Kovalik, in the Huffington Post (11/18/08), not mincing words. Headline: "Lawyer for Chiquita in Colombia Death Squad Case May be Next U.S. Attorney General." 

• Discussion thread at Democratic Underground forums. 

• Slate's "Bananas of Mass Destruction" (2007), including Chiquita's court filings. 

• "The Trouble With Eric Holder," from The Nation, 11/18/08. Not just bananas - Holder, according to the story, also has some Patriot Act issues. 

• "Preliminary Facts and Thoughts About Eric Holder," from Salon, 11/18/08. A still-being-updated, roundup on Holder's dealings, positive and negative. 

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Banana Companies Rat Each Other Out

The biggest news item I avoid in this blog are banana trade wars. That's because it would take me thousands and thousands of words to explain why the U.S., Europe, and the big banana companies have been fighting for years over who gets to sell bananas where. There have been resolutions that have led to no resolutions, problems that have led to more problems, and lots of ugly behavior on both sides. Suffice it to say that the whole thing is corrupt, and that none of it really affects whether or not bananas show up on store shelves (though it does affect where those bananas come from, and prices, as you'll see, below.) The problem is that when you enter the labyrinth, you just can't find your way back. Sorry.

But sometimes, I just have to say something. Last week, Dole and Del Monte - Dole's the second biggest banana company in the world, and Del Monte, depending on how you count, is probably third or fourth - were fined a total of $83 million by the European Union for conspiring to fix banana prices in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Sweden. These fines were good. Price-fixing is bad, and I'm always happy - we should all be happy - when banana company skullduggery is exposed.

The interesting thing about all this is who turned the Dole and Del Monte in: it was Chiquita, their rival, and the world's biggest banana company.

This time, I won't comment, other than to refer you to the source of the picture, above.

This is not meant to be the Chiquita blog, but...

You really can't help it when you see stuff like this. What does this mean? I can't tell, because - and this is another news flash - Chiquita has redesigned its website so that it de-emphasizes bananas - and made it unnavigable in the process (I tried to find some kind of marketing info on the sticker. No luck.) But even weirder, given the company's recent history of terrorist payoffs in Colombia - money which went directly for arms purchases - is the slogan itself. Fights for you? Does anybody at the banana giant's corporate headquarters think about this stuff?

I would love to see some normal news come out of Chiquita - but there doesn't seem to be much, other than an announcement of increased profits thanks to higher banana prices in the first quarter of this year.

Chiquita's bad news leads to a bigger question. As I noted in the post before this one, Dole and Del Monte have also now been accused of paying protection money in Colombia. But it is Chiquita that is getting hammered in the media. I wonder if the company regrets going public. Probably. But the reason it is getting the beat down it is now receiving - in my view - is not because it went public. The reason is that it went public only halfway. Watch the 60 Minutes interview again, if you haven’t already. Chiquita CEO Aguirre is ducking and covering. He's pretending to take responsibility while not taking responsibility. The company is getting hit because it is claiming to have done the right thing when it clearly didn't, and that leads to the suspicion that it went public not because it felt that it was ethical, but because bad stuff was coming down the pike, and it needed some quick cover.

Have Banana Prices Gone Insane?

Flooding in Ecuador - the world's largest exporter of bananas - have raised prices of what is traditionally the cheapest fruit in the supermarket. Since January, 2008 - if you buy bananas, you've certainly noticed this - prices have gone way up: in Los Angeles, from about 59 cents to as much as 79 cents a pound.

So far, the largest Ecuadorean banana company - Bonita - has made no statement on the crisis, and banana sales have remained strong - but flat - because the fruit remains the lowest-priced on store shelves. But the situation is an illustration of how fragile the banana market is; if disease should strike Latin America, prices will go up far more than the floods have prompted them to, and for the first time in over a century, apples (which now cost between about a dollar and three dollars a pound) could once again be a better value than the world's favorite fruit.

Despite the troubles, former Ecuadorean presidential candidate Alvaro Noboa remains the richest man in his country, and child labor laws there remain weak. Pressure to keep banana prices down in the face of the flooding crisis will likely affect neither.

This ninny says bananas disprove evolution...

This fellow, Ray Comfort, is using a banana to prove that a "designer" created the universe. The general idea is that only an intelligent force could have created such a naturally convenient item (with a protective wrapper, an easy-to-use "pull tab," perfect shape, etc.) There is so much stupid about this that it would be laughable, if so many people didn't fall for it. The reality, simply put, is that the banana is so "perfect" for human consumption because we've spent seven millennia - longer than just about any other crop - cultivating it to be so. In other words, since we've selected and reselected the best bananas, finally arriving at the one we eat today, the fruit - rather than proving that an unseen hand created it - tells us the opposite: we're the ones who made it what it is, and we used the tools of evolution to do so.

Oh, and also, the other guy in the video is washed-up child star Kirk Cameron, of "Growing Pains." Crediblity achieved.

Watch the video...if you want to read more about Comfort, or the Athiest Test, click below (you'll also find out why peanut butter contains yet another proof of a willful creator of the universe...)

More Chiquita Trouble in Colombia

Last year, Chiquita paid a $25 million fine after admitting supporting terrorist groups in Colombia during 1990s and the early part of this decade. This week, the world's largest banana company was sued by the families of five Florida missionaries killed by the AUC - the right-wing terror faction that the banana company was paid the money to. Three of the missionaries - David Mankins, Mark Rich, and Rick Tenenof - were kidnapped in 1993 and never seen again; they were declared dead nine years later. Steve Welsh and Timothy Van Dyke, also of the New Tribes Mission, were abducted and killed by the AUC in 1994.

A lawyer for the families said that the news of Chiquita's protection payments "started the ball rolling" on the suits, arguing that the money enabled the AUC to arm itself and expand activities. A Chiquita spokesperson called the allegation "absolutely untrue."

In an analysis on the Family Security Matters website, Douglas Farah writes:

"Wow. And now we have evidence the FARC is kidnapping people, producing cocaine and building front companies. A sad and bloody story that will not end soon, and is dragged on by companies like Chiquita who place their business ventures with terrorists above human life."

Strong words, but hard to argue, given the millions of dollars Chiquita gave to the drug-running, murdering AUC (not my opinion; the U.S. Department of Justice, under both the Clinton and Bush administrations, says so) just to bolster banana sales (after all, "protecting employees" meant maintaining a presence in the country - Chiquita could have shut down all Colombia operations.)

Dozens of Americans were killed by guerilla and terrorist groups in Colombia during the time Chiquita was paying the so-called protection money. If the New Tribes suit is successful, look for a run on the courts.

Links:

Orlando Sentinel story

New Tribes Mission

Family Security Matters

Sticker image from Becky Martz's fabulous collection

Part one: Philippines...love, flavor, bananas, and war

The "La Ba" banana variety: "Big, aromatic, and deliciously sweet," according to the "Vegetables, Fruits, and Flowers of Vietnam" website.

The most delicious bananas in the world - arguably - come from the Philippines. One, the "La Ba" banana, is native to Lam Dong province, where it is grown across a scant 100 hectares (about 250 acres) of cultivated land. In a story that originally appeared in the Thanhniem News , farmers reported that selling La Ba (described as "treasured for their large size, beautiful shape, and excellent taste") could fetch as much as eight times more than other crops grown across similar expanses of land.

Part two: Philippines...love, flavor, bananas, and war

Read Part One

A plantation building burns in the Compostela Valley, Philippines. Photo from Fresh Plaza.

Meanwhile, in the Compostela Valley on the Philippine island of Mindanao - Cavendish is grown there - 150 uniformed, armed members of the New People's Army revolutionary group ransacked a pair of banana plantations, destroying hundreds of acres of fruit, and killing one plantation official.

Chiquita sued for aiding Colombia torture

The world's largest banana company admitted to supplying payoffs to United Self Defense of Colombia, a U.S State Departments designated terrorist group that Forbes magazine descried as being responsible for "kidnapping, torture, disappearance, rape, murder, beatings, extortion, and drug trafficking."

The payments, which totalled $1.4 million, occurred between 1997 and 2004. In 2007, Chiquita confessed to the bribes, which CEO Fernando Aguirre described as "protection payments to safeguard our workforce." Finally, Aguirre added, the company found a "business solution," and sold its Colombian assets.

Chiquita has a bloody history in Colombia...

Los Angeles museum gets to keep paintings that accidentally put apples - instead of bananas - in Eden.

The painter got it wrong; the forbidden fruit was a banana. Photos from the Norton Simon Museum.

One of the major misconceptions in theological history is that the apple was the fruit Eve gave Adam, and which subsequently got the couple ejected from Eden. In all likelihood, the placement of the apple is the result of a misinterpretation of scripture by renaissance painters, who took the greek word for apple - "malum" - as a similar-sounding word for "evil" (as in the knowledge of good and evil; that word is the root of our "malice".)

I discuss the linguistic evidence for the banana's true role in Eden in the first chapter of my book; the argument was originally put forth by biblical scholar Schneir Levin in the Winter/Spring 2004 edition of Judaism: A Quarterly Journal of Jewish Life and Thought (read it here.)

Now, the Los Angeles Times says that a dispute over the ownership of one of those paintings has been settled...