Read the glowing business articles, and you’d think Chiquita’s one of those surprising corporations gone seriously green.
Check out, for example, this Business 2.0 article which notes that Chiquita, working with Rainforest Alliance, put in “$20 million to overhaul the environmental and employment standards at all of its 127 farms, which employ 30,000 workers in seven Latin American countries.”
Nice move — until you consider the latest news coming out of Colombia regarding Chiquita’s other practices — paying out at least $1.7 million to terrorist groups from 1997 to 2004, allegedly to “protect its employees and its thousands of acres of plantations.” This includes Chiquita’s “shipment of two oceangoing cargo containers filled with 3,400 AK-47 assault rifles and 4 million rounds of ammunition” to paramilitary groups.
Chiquita’s plea bargaining, saying it’ll settle for a $25-million fine. Colombia’s Atty. Gen. Mario Iguaran says “he would consider requesting the extradition of up to eight executives of Chiquita Brands International Inc. to face criminal charges including arms trafficking and criminal conspiracy.”
The problem, for us, is that mainstream media reports about these companies are never contextualized. The Business 2.0 article makes no mention of Chiquita’s shady dealings with paramilitary groups. And the LA Times article makes no mention of Chiquita’s effort to halo its image via the Rainforest Alliance.
Thus, we get sharply conflicting articles that seem contradictory, to the point many people simply become disengaged, not really believing or disbelieving anything. Is Chiquita a good or bad company? If you rely on MSM reports, who knows? So people keep on buying the Chiquita bananas because, well, they’re there, and who really knows what this transnational company’s up to…. It’s all very complicated, they say….
The situation becomes especially distressing when we get enviro-orgs — grateful for the token move by a big transnational, which means just chump change for Chiquita but big bucks for a nonprofit — happily giving companies like Chiquita green lip service for a teeny green nod.
Says Chris Wille of the Rainforest Alliance about Chiquita: “It would be a challenge to find a company that has come so far and so fast.” Business 2.0 gushes that “Today all 110 of Chiquita’s company-owned farms and the vast majority of its independent farms are certified by the Rainforest Alliance. Chiquita now recycles 100 percent of its plastic bags and twine and has reduced pesticide use by 26 percent.”
At some point, you have to wonder: Does recycling even matter in the context of a company’s involvement in fueling nationwide violence and countless deaths? I mean, I heart recycling, but you gotta put this stuff in context! (read more about the Chiquita situation via Alternet)
It’s this dichotomy — between a company’s M.O. and a company’s greenwashing tactics — that makes so many activists skeptical of corporations that purport to go green. Says Jonathan Rosenthal of the fair trade fruit company Oke USA (covered here): “I’m really not convinced that [the efforts of transnational banana companies] is a genuine effort at reform.” Jonathan points to a long history of exploitation and violence, allowed and even encouraged by these transnational companies. Traditionally, these are not exactly companies that have “cared” about the people who produce its bananas, he notes.
The difference today, however, is that going green’s become a money-making proposition. Thus, companies like Dole are trying to earn green points to capture the eco-market. Dole Fresh Fruit International, Dole Food’s fresh fruit division, has launched a site about its organic bananas operation called Dole Organic. The site has details on the growers and on the location and certification of banana farms. Frans Wielemaker of Dole says: “It is an educational tool, which increases transparency and thus consumer confidence in our products and in our brand,â€
Now, no one’s saying that this tool is “bad.” The problem is that this tool is not contextualized within the larger business practices of Dole as a company. Jordan Bar Am, fair trade activist, asks: “what percentage of Dole’s total production is organic, i.e. what percentage of their total business is now ‘transparent’?”
Jonathan agrees. “What about the other 99% of their production?” he asks. Jonathan says he applauds the move but also cautions, “on the other hand, don’t believe the hype.” Pointing to Dole’s well-documented habit of breaking up unions and harrassing workers, Jonathan says “it’s always a mixed story,” and urges consumers to hold corporations accountable.
So what’s a banana eater to do? “When it doubt, slow it down,” Jonathan says. “Look at the stories, what percent of their volume this story represents, and then ask ‘what are the stories they’re not telling?’ … I think the thing that excites me about consumer being enlightened is that they can start to decide for themselves. If [transnationals] are going to choose a path of engagement, [consumers] can demand that these companies be more genuine, more involved.”
Wanna make it even easier? Go for the fair trade companies like Oke USA that’re really defining what good business practices are. “I think that’s always been one of the goals of small companies,” Jonathan says, “to use our leverage to force the big guys to set a higher standard…. I think the goal of a company like Oke and Equal Exchange is to really keep the bar high and to engage customers to keep that dialogue.”
Oke USA’s current goal’s to get its fair trade bananas into SoCal sometime in May 2007.
Chiquita never seize to surprise you …
Comment by Johan — March 29, 2007 @ 9:56 am
Good work, Siel. Again your putting out there the information and the context that’s missing.
Comment by Rodney North — March 29, 2007 @ 6:52 pm
did I mean cease or seize?
Comment by Johan — March 30, 2007 @ 1:15 am
You are so inocent and you feel like experts!
Did you know that the OKE Fairtrade bananas are currently produced by the same producers who sell their fruit to Dole and Chiquita, so what´s the difference with OKE?
I am a banana producer form Machala in Ecuador, I know what I am saying because a see it every day, I do not read it on the newspapers.
This is not about transnationals or fairtrade certified companies, at the end been fairtrade certified means nothing. Fairtrade certifiation is manipulated by only one certification company FLO CERT based in Germany, they charge the producer, they charge the exporter, they charge the importer and the retailer, at the end one fairtrade banana produced a big bunch of money for FLO and only few cents go for the growers, so please stop saying that fairtrade is the answer, because it is far away from been the answer.
Comment by Manolo BuendÃa — March 31, 2007 @ 9:06 pm
Hello,
I am a medium banana farmer from El Oro in Ecuador. I read the comment from Mr. BuendÃa and I need to agree with him.
FLO (Fairtrade Labeling Organization) from Germnay is a big fraud.
Did you know that a grower organization have to pay 2500 Euros to apply for certification? and there is not guaranty to get certified. If the organization do not pay, FLO will not inspect them, and still they can be not certified and FLO will keep the 2500 Euros.
Then, the growers sell the fruit to an Fairtrade certified exporter, who also will pay FLO no less than 2500 Euros.
The exporter ship the fruit to Europe or USA and to an certified importer who also paid no less than 2500 Euros for its certification plus a “tax” on their sales.
Then, the importers distribute the fairtrade fruit among certified retailers who also pais for its certification and the “tax” for the sales.
When the fruit is already at the retail store, the consumer, it means YOU, pay an extra price for the fairtrade banana…
It is supose that the whole extra price or premium will go to the certified growers in the developing countries but… have you heard about any project financed by Fairtrade?, did you find any information about the use of the premium you paid for the fairtrade product?
In the real world, a big percentage of the premium goes straight to Bonn in Germany to finance FLO and all its White Elephant(burocracy).
I at least prefer the iniciatives from the big companies like Dole because they have to be accountable and at least they are showing us faces and histories, and they are not saying that they are non profit, of course they are for profit, but they are letting us access information that nobody is sharing with us.
I also ask you and all nice persons from US to find the truth about FLO, they are not what they say.
Come to the tropics and experience the reality and build your opinion based on facts, not on what you read on a magazine or newspaper.
JRE.
Comment by José Ricardo Encalada — March 31, 2007 @ 9:22 pm
FLO is like a PRIVATE CLUB, if you like them, they will certify you. It doesn´t really matter if you are complying 100% with their standards, it is just about politics.
I applied for Fairtrade certification of my organic banana farm in Colombia and they just said no. They never gave me a good reason. But they certified other farms in Colombia related with a powerful family group in this country.
FLO is a big joke, they are fake. It could be a very nice initiative but they decided to go politic and they spoiled it.
Comment by Julio Jaramillo — March 31, 2007 @ 9:28 pm
I agree with Julio Jaramillo!
FLO certified our farm in Costa Rica a year ago. In 2004 we fired an employee because he was unefficient and reluctant to use his personal protection equipment, we paid him according to the law. He tried to obtain more money from us saying that if we don´t pay him he will go to the Court. We didn´t pay and we have to go to the Court and explain the whole thing. We will win tha case because we did it according to the law.
A labour court trial in Costa Rica can last years.
FLO was noticed by a local Union (Unions in Latin America are USELESS, believe me, USELESS, they are like parasits of our society), about this situation and FLO decertified us. Even when it haven´t been detemined if we are guilty or not by the autorities in Costa Rica, FLO decided by themselves that we are guilty.
Who they think they are? God???, please, somebody have to unveil the reality to consumers, Fairtrade is not FAIR anymore, it is a Private Club, as stated before by Jaramillo, with political and economical interests.
Comment by Juan SantamarÃa — March 31, 2007 @ 9:43 pm
I don´t know much about the reality outside my country, Peru, but I am a organic banana grower from the North side of Peru, in Sullana.
I have 5 years of selling my fruit to Dole and have been always very good with me, my family and the community I live on, Saman.
They helped us to become Fairtrade certified, they trained us to obtain our own organic certification, and now they are teching us to process and pack our own bananas. They had done a lot for Sullana and Saman. This city was dead before Dole came, now the quality of life for me, my family and my community had improved a lot.
Please do not talk bad things about a company if you do not know what they do for people like me in Peru.
Manuel Atoche
Saman – Sullana
Peru.
Comment by Manuel Atoche — March 31, 2007 @ 9:49 pm
Manolo to Manuel — If you’re going to spam comment on a blog pretending to be 5 different people, it helps to actually use different IP addresses that’re located in the countries each of your impersonations say they’re from. If all the comments come from one computer, it simply makes you look like the idiot you are. Clearly, you’re passionate about debunking fair trade — but can’t actually prove your point without resorting to lies and comment spamming.
Needless to say, your IP address, 196.40.21.60, is now going to be restricted from commenting here. Thanks for the laughs.
Comment by Siel — April 1, 2007 @ 9:42 am
Oké USA is buying all of its bananas currently from El Guabo, an association of over 300 small and medium organic fair trade banana growers. Some of these growers do sell bananas to some of the large buyers. The difference Oké offers is evident in several ways.
First, our majority owner, AgroFair is 1/2 owned by the growers, including El Guabo. This means that in addition to getting fair trade pricing, they have a say in how we operate and a dividend from AgroFair profits.
Second, the AgroFair family has a nonprofit sister organization, AFAD, that has supported the development of El Guabo and other grower organizations.
Finally, Oké USA never pays paramilitary militias or other armed forces. And, we never ship weapons, only fair trade organic bananas!
Comment by Top Banana — April 3, 2007 @ 2:20 pm