Original Commercial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFDOI24RRAE

(I’d check it out, it is super fun!)

How a banana came to be in my hand thanks to Chiquita:
– A banana bulb was planted in Peru.
– The bulb takes 9 months to mature and develop fruit ready to be picked.
– The fruit is picked and brought to a production plant.
– During the processing of the selected bananas about 10 liters of water is used for one kilogram of banana.
– A worker places a blue sticker on each banana.
– The banana is shipped around 6,195 km to Toronto from Peru.
– The banana is purchased at a local food store and brought home.
*The banana is not presented with any packaging aside from the sticker*
– I chose to use the banana in my breakfast wrap.

Sustainable Agriculture?
According to the website, Chiquita seems to be very interested in sustainable practices and have developed efficient was of producing their product. To protect the banana plant as it matures they utilize recycled plastic to cover and support the plant. Many tools on their farms are also created from recycled plastic. Banana leaves and stems are composted and local animals can use them as a source of food. They also try to keep all run off from their farms from entering the surrounding ecosystems and even hire other companies to test the water quality of surrounding rivers. Basically, they are trying their utmost to develop a practice that will be able to continue for decades. I think this is a really awesome start and I like that the product is coming from a company that cares. Of course not everyone appreciates there attempts and there has been a recent controversy regarding their ethical practices.

Ethical Fuel?
A recent news article published by CBC explains that Chiquita boy-cotted Canadian oil in favor of oil not produced from tar-sands. It seems that they chose a form of oil they found to fit their sustainable practices better. Of course this caused some outrage so it is kind of fun to see how that developed: http://chiquitaconflict.com/

Tying it all together:
“The common assumption these days is that we muster our weapons to secure oil, not food…Ever since we ran out of arable land, food is oil.” (Manning, 2004). So what about choosing the oil that is the food? Chiquita choosing not to support Canada’s oil industry demonstrated that this goes much deeper and further into economy. For a company that imports to us but won’t take our exports, what does that say? Is it possible for that to work? Or are we too centered around economy to see what they are seeing? Perhaps food is oil and if its not our oil that is another reason to go to war. I mean historically we’ve gone to war for a lot less…

Source:

“The Chiquita Difference.” Chiquita. n.p. 11 July 2013.

“Will you boycott Chiquita bananas over its oilsands stance?” Your Community Blog. CBC News

Richard Manning, “The Oil We Eat: Following the Food Chain Back to Iraq,” Harper’s Magazine, February 2004, 37-45.