Corporate Swine, Inc.

On June 30th Chiquita CEO Fernando Aquirre announced a plan to have a new "flavored" banana on the grocery store shelves. Aquirre hopes the new banana will make Chiquita International Brands, Inc the "Starbucks of the produce world". The new bananas, which will be available in up to five new flavors, could hit US stores within a year.

The banana industry has a long and dark history. Between the leading three brands of banana corporations (Chiquita is #1, followed closely by Dole and Del Monte), 14 million tons of bananas are exported from Latin America annually. The industry is wrought with corporate greed, environmental devestation, and union busting. Chiquita has continued to perpetuate these lack of standards, destroying Latin American Rainforests and exploiting workers for pennies a day in countries like Ecuador and Honduras.

In January of 2001, Chiquita filed a half-billion dollar lawsuit against the European Union for refusing the importation of bananas from American corporations. The EU reduced Chiquita's marketshare with tariffs and quotas, contending that American companies "seek to bully small Caribbean and African producers out of business by pushing the interests of giant conglomerates that have cut costs by riding roughshod over workers' rights and environmental concerns."

$2.6 billion in sales in 2003

The average American consumes 27 pounds of bananas a year. What, then, can you do as a consumer to affect change? Buy fair trade, educate yourself and others. To find out which companies to support, and to get more info on the banana trade, visit Food Alliance.