Dan Koeppel's Blog

The following is the original English text of an article I wrote for Dagens Nyheter, the largest daily newspaper in Sweden. The story is about Dole’s attempt to stop the distribution of “BANANAS!*”, a documentary made by Swedish filmmaker Fredrik Gertten that the banana company believes to be untrue. The film is about lawsuits filed [...]

The Democracy Now radio program interviewed Nicholas Kozloff, who argued that there’s a Chiquita connection in the current Honduran political crisis, which saw President Manuel Zelaya deposed in either a coup or a constitutional emergency, or both, depending on which side you’re on, in June. The banana industry once made Honduras its largest exporting nation; [...]

The banana – pushed by Chiquita, these days, as an alternative to junk food – is the food of peace. Doritos (especially this Japanese “flavor”) are the snack of hatred, violence, and war.
Right now, I’m thinking I want some Doritos.
And in a semi non-random and possibly tasteless juxtaposition..the Banana Split Blizzard is my all-time favorite [...]

I’ll be talking about the Cavendish banana – our supermarket breed – and why it is an economic, political, and culinary dead end – organic, fair trade, or conventional. I’ll be offering a picture of what a future banana – one that helps correct a century of social and environmental justice – might look like. [...]

Just two weeks ago, I lamented that this possibly-magical product wasn’t available near my Los Angeles home. It still isn’t, but it was in lovely Tilton, New Hampshire. Below is a video review.

[Mobile posted with iBlogger]

From reader Mira Geffner comes a shot of the Nature Mart on Hillhurst Avenue in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles. That’s my local health food store.
I’ve got some big problems with organic fruit in general – you can learn more in my book – but let’s talk about why a price that’s [...]

The problem with Fair Trade bananas is that bananas are too cheap – there’s just not enough cash in the pipeline to make this strategy for bringing true “fairness” to the fruit effective (Fair Trade bananas cost, at most, just a few pennies more than conventional fruit; compare that to coffee and chocolate – two [...]

This is amazing. Banana Split in a Kit, and from Blue Bunny, the maker of ice cream novelties like the Bomb Pop and Power Puff Girls bars.
And this is even more amazing  - you use the pre-packaged work of genius as raw material for an even more splendid creation:

The official name for this product is [...]

The original filename for this image was “Banana Haiku Operation.” I guess because of the seven slices? Kinda over my head. Still, a masterpiece in the illustrations on bananas department. Thanks Jocelyn!

CBS’s “60 Minutes” reran its May, 2008 segment, called “The Price of Bananas,” on Chiquita’s payments to a Colombian paramilitaries. New information included the extradition of a member of that group to the U.S., confirmation by additional sources, and the expansion of an investigation of similar alleged payments made by Dole.

Watch the report. Read a transcript.

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