August, 2009

Bananas — Comments Off
28
Aug 09

Not Worth It.

NM Organics

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 nutty-high is a special problem.

First, a comparison. Right across the street from the Nature Mart, the Albertson’s supermarket sells Dole organics for 99 cents a pound. About a mile away, Trader Joe’s sells organic fruit for even less.

I don’t know what label is on the Nature Mart organics, but you can be assured that there’s no single brand of banana it can possibly stock that’s different from any other. Most likely it sells Dole and Chiquita, depending on what its supplier has at a particular time. It doesn’t matter. Conventional, Fair Trade, or organic, Dole, Chiquita, or a smaller brand, if you sell bananas the way they are sold today – if you sell the bananas being sold today – you’re selling environmental damage and you’re selling a century of injustice.

I’m not out to slag Nature Mart. But small stores – and big chains that claim to care, as well – need to begin a learning process that shows exactly where their complicity lies. As I mentioned in my earlier post on Fair Trade, I’ll be explaining that over the next few weeks (and I’ll be contacting Nature Mart with some hopefully constructive information.)

thanks, Mira!

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24
Aug 09

Dominican Farmers Abandon Fair Trade

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 relative Fair Trade success stores – which garner huge premiums for their provenance.) Farmers in Dominica are finding that out, as this story, from Dominica News Online, reports, quoting Mitchell Roberts, of the country’s National Fair Trade Organisation.

“The costs of inputs escalated, the cost of packaging material escalated, labour has always been a high cost, and because of that farmers feel that they were not making money and their cost of production is high and the returns they get, was not reflective of the amount of effort they put, so some farmers definitely had to leave it,” Roberts stated.

He said there are now three hundred and fifty active Fairtrade farmers selling bananas, a major decrease over the last year.

“We started with close to six hundred farmers when we started last year, and now, we are down to three hundred and fifty,” he said.

There’s far more at stake in Fair Trade bananas than in any other food product. Nothing else comes close to the banana’s century of injustice – and nothing any Fair Trade banana marketed today comes close to reversing those injustices in a statistically significant manner. If the point of Fair Trade isn’t just to make consumers feel good, then those who currently advocate Fair Trade need to look at ways to sell bananas for more money. Hint: If you sell the same banana variety as Chiquita and Dole, you’re in bed with them. Starting in September, I’ll be publishing a series of articles explaining why; if you’re in Los Angeles, you can come see my talk at LACE, which will cover the same topic.

Bananas — Comments Off
20
Aug 09

DO. WANT. (Can’t. Have.)

Retail price is about a buck, if you can find one.

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.

Awesomeness.

Awesomeness.

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 “Personals Banana Split.” Blue Bunny is a midwestern brand, mostly, though we get their fantastic ice cream sandwiches on the west coast (see the note, below.) But when I did a search for retailers offering this unbelievably exciting item – my radius was 100 miles – I got this heartbreaking message:

bluebunny

I guess 387 miles is not considered "a store near you."

I’m sad. In fact, the locator indicates that there’s not a single store selling this product in the entire state of California. I checked Nevada, too. I didn’t get lucky until Utah, where Blue Bunny has a manufacturing plant.

Now, that note: I applaud Blue Bunny’s innovation one zillion percent, but I have a question concerning the three-flavored  and strangely-spelled “Neapolitan” variety of their ice-cream sandwiches. What on earth made you guys put strawberry as one of  the outside flavors? This is nuts, and here’s why. Strawberry ice cream sucks. Only your weird uncle likes it. Chocolate (which appears on the BB sandwich’s other flank) and vanilla (the middle flavor) are rightly preferred. The issue is one of sequence. With the hated, not-fruit fruit on the exterior, the consumer is stripped of a crucial choice: whether or not to eat their favorite flavor first or last! If you like vanilla, you’ve got to eat it first. If you like chocolate, you’ve got to eat it last. But if strawberry were at the sandwich’s center, where it should be, you could decide, and as a bonus, you’d have the remaining “good” flavor left as a finale to wipe out the residual strawberry yuck. Am I wrong?)

But really, I don’t want to be seen as ragging on the Blue Bunny. I just wish I could get one of those Personal Banana Splits somewhere less than a day’s drive away.

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14
Aug 09

Banana and Parrot LOLZ

banana_haiku_operation

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!

Big Parade — Comments Off
11
Aug 09

Bob Inman is a Stairway God.

Greatest Stairway Book Ever

Greatest Stairway Book Ever. You should buy it.

After the Big Parade was over, I got an email from Bob Inman, author of “A Guide to the Stairways of Los Angeles,” which is absolutely the most complete – and beautifully put together – listing of this city’s public stairs, from San Pedro to South Pasadena, beyond and in-between. Bob has spent four years counting, cataloguing, and mapping, and the hard work shows: precise addresses, assessments, counts, and “local color” info are included with each stairway, all divided by neighborhood for easy walking. Bob took me on an 18-stairway, 8-mile walk that stretched from Highland Park to South Pasadena, with Gold Line stops (cool use of mass transit!) on either end. I’ve never been led on a stairwalk before – and it was really an incredible experience.

Bob, I bow down to you. You can preview the book here, but if you buy it,  you’re better off ordering it directly from Bob; you’ll save on shipping.

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10
Aug 09

“60 Minutes” updates Chiquita report

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.


Related posts:

  • Last year’s entry is here.
  • Chiquita’s lawyer is Eric Holder, now U.S. attorney general. Here’s my March, 2008 entry.
  • 400 Colombian families are suing the banana giant. My November, 2007 entry is here.
Bananas — Comments Off
8
Aug 09

Video taste test: Ugandan banana gin

Waragi is to Ugandans what tequila is to Mexicans, vodka is to Russians, and Diet Coke is to Sarah Palin. I bought a bottle during a stopover at Entebbe airport, and conducted a video taste test when I got to Kinshasa, in the Democratic Republic of Congo. I’d been in the backcountry under rough conditions for a couple of weeks when I recorded this, which might explain my enthusiasm.


The stuff is rotgut – which isn’t meant to diminish the importance of bananas in Uganda, which are used not just for hooch, but  as a primary source of calories. People would starve without them, and the fruit is threatened by disease, making the nation ground zero for banana research.



Still, you could run a moped on this stuff. Which is more than you could say for Diet Coke.

Bananas — 1 Comment
5
Aug 09

Banana (High) Price Watch

image121899477.jpg
Starbucks, Los Angeles: At 90 cents, we’ve got a record for a non-airport banana. This is the second-cheapest item on the Starbucks snack menu (after vanilla mini-scones, at 75 cents.) I was told the fruit is not a big seller, and that a cursory check of the dumpster after closing time would prove this.

The banana price is seen as too high, I’m guessing, even at a place where the customers seem willing to purchase donuts for a buck and a half, which I’m sure is unconstitutional.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

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2
Aug 09

Tweeting Banana Arrivals in San Diego

Banana Boat

From Danforth’s flickr stream.

Writer/comedian Danforth France saw this Dole freighter unloading in San Diego while he was attending last week’s Comic-Con, and he sent me the linked tweet.

The ship is the Dole Honduras – one of two that constitute the banana giant’s Pacific fleet. The vessel makes over 20 annual north-south trips along a route that stretches from San Diego to Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala; Caldera, Costa Rica; Guayaquil, Ecuador; and Paita, Peru, according to  Dole Ocean Cargo.

Danforth’s image was taken July 26, and the vessel’s current schedule indicates that it is handling shorter haul work right now. The Port of San Diego’s Marine Information System indicates that it has already made a full round trip since then, and is due back today. It will depart for Costa Rica on Tuesday, August 4,

The most interesting thing about the vessel is its color. Tradition has it that banana boats be painted white. Chiquita’s ships, starting even before the early 1900s,were known as the “Great White Fleet.” Though the Honduras is a bit of a shabby beige, it fits the traditional scheme, which is more than just  custom. Bananas are highly perishable and grown far away. They have to be shipped under refrigeration if they’re to arrive at your supermarket  ready-to-ripen, rather than icky brown. But despite these formidable built-in costs, bananas remain incredibly cheap. That seemingly impossible paradox can only be overcome  if  every cost-cutting measure is taken –  so heat-reflecting paint jobs have been part the fruit’s business model almost since day one.

Thanks, Danforth!

Seen any interesting banana stuff lately? Tweet me….