Banana Cultures

Soluri, John Banana Cultures: Agriculture, Consumption, & Environmental Change in Honduras & the United States. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2005.

            Banana Cultures: Agriculture, Consumption, & Environmental Change in Honduras & the United States combines the fields of Environmental History and Economics to look at the transformation of the banana from a simple Honduran plant into a staple in American kitchens, and how the banana export trade changed cultural practices and biophysical processes that have shaped global economic institutions. In particular, Banana Cultures outlines the commodity chain analysis of the banana export trade which involves processing and transportation technologies that enabled banana companies to hasten the pace of production, distribution, and sale of bananas while cutting labor costs. The commodification of bananas made possible the mass consumption of the fruit in North America.

            The commodity chain analysis allows us to study how products change along their routes from production to consumption. The banana’s commodity chain begins on farms on the North Shore of Honduras and ends on North American tables. Capital and power were concentrated specifically in places between those farms and tables. Companies like the United Fruit Company and the Cuyamel Fruit Company exploited the resources located within this commodity chain and created a fruit for international mass consumption. The construction of railroads in Honduras decreased the transportation time of bananas, allowing the expansion of the export banana trade.

            Fruit companies also experimented with quality control measures as a way to standardize production processes. This step in the banana’s commodity chain evolved around the Gros Michel variety of banana, which because of its ultimate perishability would accrue and lose market price in just a few days. When North American markets became saturated with Gros Michel bananas, quality became important. Due to the eventual near-monopolization of banana transportation methods, fruit companies were able to control those quality standardization processes to a great extent.

            Prior to becoming commonplace in the United States, bananas were pop culture icons of the tropics. Bananas were associated with a cultural inferiority of the tropics and exotic peoples. Over the nineteenth century the symbolic meaning of the banana did not change, however the banana’s economic importance changed immensely. As stated above, the rise of fresh fruit consumption went hand in hand with a rise and shipping and transportation methods. Because of the fossil fuel era, the banana went from a novelty to a commodity in a relatively short period of time.

Advertising served an important step in the commodity chain of the banana. Notwithstanding its tropical origins, the banana helped define every-day consumer culture in the United States. Fruit company executives dealt with how to market bananas and make them more popular than ever. In 1944 the United Fruit Company launched a radio campaign featuring a singing banana dubbed Miss Chiquita. After the launch of Miss Chiquita, the Gros Michel banana was replaced by the Cavendish variety. The Cavendish and Miss Chiquita turned an agricultural commodity into a product that consumers could distinguish by brand name.

American women played perhaps the most important part in the marketing of bananas. Women were responsible for the grocery shopping in most American households and they primarily bore the responsibility of making meals. As such, fruit companies aimed advertising at American women. Recipe books and The Chiquita Banana Song helped send the message that not all bananas were the same, but that the Chiquita banana was superior. The United Fruit Company also published pamphlets extolling the nutritional benefits of the banana.

            Labor relations on the North Shore of Honduras evolved as the banana generated mass appeal in North America. Easy to cultivate and harvest, the banana was initially grown by small- and medium-scale growers. Banana growers experienced a quick and steady return on labor and capital investments. The North Shore actually experienced labor shortages in the early years of the export banana trade. In the early twentieth century, fruit companies began to dominate the landscape of banana farming. With banana plantations, control of railroads and steamships, and the ability to control quality standards, corporate fruit companies created a stranglehold on banana exportation. The story of Luis Cabelleno illustrates how a small-scale banana farmer was unable to keep up with market demand and quality standards while turning a profit. Cabelleno lost steadily lost business over a six-year period, eventually giving up banana cultivation.

            By the mid-twentieth century, labor relations had evolved on the North Shore to reflect the corporatization of the export banana trade. Fruit companies created temporary employment opportunities with cyclical layoffs during production cycles. Alongside the expansion of the Cavendish, packaging plants were able to hire women and children. On the other hand, plantation farming had a negative impact on the agricultural opportunities for the Honduran working class. It became all but impossible for ordinary laborers to find suitable land for farming. Artisan and worker organizations developed after conflicts for the only profitable lands remaining for farming.

            Temporary jobs created by the fruit companies’ expanding operations attracted the underemployed and employed. Olancho, Honduras citizen, Juan Gavilán, remembered the importance of personal contacts during the boom years of the export banana trade. A motivated laborer had little trouble finding and exchanging jobs on the banana plantations of the North Coast.

             The North Shore experienced drastic changes in the history of banana agricultural practices. Under the guiding hand of United States’ capital and technology, banana farming saw the transformation of small-scale banana farming into productive agricultural spaces. United States’ fruit companies initially focused cultivation efforts on Gros Michel. A bacterial plant disease, Panama disease, as it would be called, shifted those efforts away from Gros Michel and towards the Cavendish. After the onset of Panama disease fruit companies implemented a shift in plantation agriculture driven by banana biology, interconnected agroecosystems, and mass-market structures. Disease control became a primary focus of the fruit companies. At great expense disease-control equipment was installed on company plantations and non-company farms alike. Agricultural scientists were employed to study plant diseases, control methods, and prevention.

A major component in Banana Cultures is the disease control methods on banana plantations and the effects on laborers. With plant diseases like Panama disease and Sigatoka, fruit companies developed herbicides and insecticides to continue the export banana trade. Bordeaux mixture was made up of copper sulfate and used to combat Sigatoka. Laborers would be inundated with a mist of the Bordeaux mixture, leaving their skin and clothes a blue-green color. Cantalisio Andino worked on a North Shore banana plantation and reported the underside of his bed turning blue after working a Bordeaux sprayer. Laborers also reported respiratory illnesses that they attributed to the chemicals used on banana plantations. By the 1970s nearly every phase of banana production involved chemical involvement.

The complicated dynamic between fruit companies, laborers, Cavendish banana plants, and plant diseases prompted the greater use of fertilizers and herbicides to boost banana yields. All the while, mass market appeal in North America continued to grow.