SmartAlliance

BOOK EXCERPTS

Timeline
Preface
Introduction
Abbreviations
  1. Risk, Transparency and Trust
  2. Red, White and Bruised
  3. Times Change
  4. Why Bananas and Why Chiquita?
  5. Strange Bedfellows
  6. Grass Roots Snapshots
  7. Blue Bananas
  8. Agricultural Antagonists
  9. "Daylight Come..."
  10. The Many Faces of Corporate Responsibility
  11. Leveling the Label Field
  12. Unfinished Business

Appendixes

Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index

Excerpts

"We concluded that there was a paucity of credible, independent investigations of actual company operations--the 'ground truth' of corporate practice on some of these issues. We were presented with an unusual opportunity to pursue this important subject when we learned that the Rainforest Alliance in New York, a group we knew well, had been working on the farms of Chiquita Brands International in Latin America and elsewhere to certify that these operations were being run in an environmentally sound way - and that health and safety measures for the workers were in place. As a result of this novel collaboration ... this formerly secretive corporation was willing to open its doors to us as well. It was a challenge we believed we had the experience and skill to take on, and we thought that, published as a book, our investigations would be useful - especially since the surprising relationship between Chiquita and the Rainforest Alliance was taking place at a time when multinational companies, along with many other social institutions, seemed to be losing their way." (Preface)

"During the 1980s public outrage ignited over tropical forest destruction, worker illness from overuse of pesticides, and visible damage to coastal ecosystems. Almost all the big agricultural companies organized campaigns of denial. Chiquita broke ranks and allowed the dedicated environmentalists at the Rainforest Alliance onto its farms in the tropics to certify that the company's performance was improving every year. Managers were measurably reducing the use of toxic chemicals, replanting the rainforest, improving the quality of ground and surface water, and making costly changes to protect workers' health and enhance their safety. In this highly competitive industry, the relationship astounded Chiquita's U.S. rivals, Dole and Del Monte, and worried conservationists and other critics who needed proof that the Rainforest Alliance had not sold out." (Introduction)

"In early March 1999 - exactly one hundred years after the birth of United Fruit - we were in Costa Rica on our way to banana country. We were accompanied by David McLaughlin, then senior director environmental affairs, tropical environmental group, for Chiquita Brands International, the successor company to United Fruit. This company, above all others, had dominated the banana business in Latin America. Even if the company had been in sync with public expectations in its early years, by the closing decades of the twentieth century it had lagged far behind rapidly changing global norms. ... We wanted to talk to critics, government officials, scientists, labor leaders, workers, and anyone else who could shed light on whether the notorious banana company, dubbed El Pulpo (the octopus), was truly changing its ways. We were also eager to see for ourselves the improvements we had heard so much about. " (Chapter 1)

In the mid-fifties, Thomas McCann, a former executive of United Fruit, could paint a graphic picture from his earliest days as a public relations employee: "During this era the hierarchical arrangement of a United Fruit plantation was symmetrical: the best address was the house on the hill (sometimes artificially built up) of the division manager. Subordinates' houses were just a little lower. The divisions were set up like army camps. Along with the company stores, most divisions had three classes of clubs: the top club was the same as an army officer's club; next in the pecking order was the second-class club for the Latin clerical and supervisory personnel (in effect, the non-commissioned officers); at the bottom were the clubs for the workers - the privates and corporals.
"The so-called American Club was almost always on a golf course, world class and manicured by cheap local labor - just for the United Fruit executives. Famous golf pros were frequent visitors. Multilane bowling was the preferred activity of the second-class clubs. The third-class clubs were the sites of the real action. Unless one felt truly adventurous and crossed over into the "civilian quarters," with poverty everywhere, cantinas, whorehouses, and few friendly faces." (Chapter 3)

"'We didn't select Chiquita or the banana sector innocently or by chance. It was a strategic choice. The banana is a symbolic commodity at all sorts of levels. Soy beans just aren't as sexy, even though the basic story is the same - vast unsustainable monocultures controlled by a handful of multinational companies.'" (Chapter 4, from an interview with an activist leader)

"'The dance was a slow one. You don't win anyone's confidence overnight.' He said that the situation was especially tough because the critics of the banana business - 'greens, scientists, the Catholic Church, unions, and gadflies - had been slinging arrows at the producers, mainly transnational companies for years.' The companies hardened their resistance: it was especially dangerous for banana farm managers to be seen with environmentalists. 'Our field technicians met with company technicians quietly.'" (Chapter 5, from an interview with the agriculture chief for the Rainforest Alliance)

"Because Costa Rica is a border country with a high level of development compared to the rest of Central America, it is one of the principal destinations for migrants from neighboring Nicaragua... Many of them work on the banana farms. Some families are too poor to afford books or the necessary uniforms for their school-age children. In some cases, the communities help with food and clothing. We interviewed a Nicaraguan worker as he waited for a bus near Cariari. A handsome, muscular man with a dark complexion, he said he was a cutter and had been living in Costa Rica for seven years. He worked for an independent farm and wasn't sure which of the U.S. companies bought fruit from his farm. He said wages hadn't been this low for a long, long time; he called them starvation wages (when the economy was in better shape we had been told that some banana workers could make better money than a lot of white color workers in San Jose -- bank tellers or school teachers, for example). He said he knew of some people who were sick from pesticides, but he was vague and could have been talking about two or twenty workers. Yet, last year on his farm all the workers had started wearing protective gear. At first, he said, people complained a lot because they weren't used to doing so. The gear was hot and uncomfortable, but now they are used to it and he thought the protection was a good idea." (Chapter 6)

"The increasing emphasis on food production for export rather than for local consumption is having a severe impact on agriculture generally, and the banana trade is inextricably linked to these tough issues. Small farmers are being displaced as land is increasingly turned over to production for export... Some argue strongly that small farmers are politically stabilizing and generally more desirable than armies of workers with no access to land. So far, these advocates have not been clear on how a transition from one to the other should occur; instead, they have primarily fought to fend off encroachment by industrial farming." (Chapter 8)

"As social and environmental certifiers are fanning out into the banana plantations, a whole new dynamic has come into play. Dave McLaughlin put it this way: 'Transparency is an issue we are still wrestling with. We do know from experience that a lot of times this transparency has been used against us, especially by the European NGOs. Where we recognize an issue and agree that improvement is necessary, they can turn it into a public condemnation rather than an exercise in honest dialogue. It's really like the Miranda rights: 'What you say can and will be used against you.'" (Chapter 9)

"There was much confusion even in well-meaning corporations about what was expected of them. As the nineties went on, calls for corporate codes of conduct grew more urgent. A number of companies responded, but as codes began to proliferate the need for a common template became clear. NGOs were skeptical (to say the least) of simple statements of high intentions. They demanded transparency through third-party audits; open reporting, and clear results on the ground. The treatment of workers by multinational companies was moving to the top of many NGO agendas. Sweatshops, used by brand-name clothing companies worldwide, were getting new scrutiny." (Chapter 10)

"Another crucial strand in the Fair Trade movement arose, again mainly in Europe, to combat the growing influence of multinational companies, especially those exporting commodities from the developing world. Vertically organized production and marketing companies like United Fruit were singled out, in the conviction that their pricing formulas gave short shrift to small farmers." (Chapter 11)

"Meanwhile, corporate power, somewhat checked, following the burst of the dot.com bubble and rash of corporate scandals, is still a considerable factor in global politics. According to the fourth annual Corporate Social Responsibility Monitor survey of more than 21,000 consumers, shareholders and corporate employees in twenty-one countries, significant proportions of people in most countries are unable to name a socially responsible company. People have a difficult time doing this despite consistently high expectations for companies to demonstrate such responsibility...The report describes high levels of consumer activism and empowerment around corporate social responsibility."(Chapter 12)

  
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