h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A517303

This entry has already been approved and edited, but was removed by the moderators because it contained 'commercial info.' Peta's looked it over and can't find anything wrong with it, so if anybody's looking for an easy article to recommend, this would be the one.

Of course, this is an excellent opportunity to improve the entry - if you see anything that you think can or should be changed, let me know!

- Lentilla

I'm not sure this is the venue for you to be using. If there was a problem with an Edited Entry and the moderators, TPTB should deal with it, no?

This one is a bit odd. Hmmm...

I'm not really sure either! Nobody's really given me an answer on whether I should run it past the moderators to have it re-inserted into the edited Guide, or whether I should put it back in Peer Review, so I'm trying both. Hopefully this won't confuse anybody unduly.

But like I said, this is a great chance for anybody that wants to help me spruce up the entry a bit...

Lentilla

Over the last two or three years I have noticed an overall decrease in the quality of fruit in general, and bananas in particular. I understand that much of this stems from poor agri practices.
While some effort is being made here in Canada and the USA to promote healthy agricultural, (read 'organic gardening'), I wonder how other, developing countries deal with the problem?
I recall hearing from a tourist recently returned from a major banana-producing country that commercial banana production required massive amounts of pesticide and other chemicals, most of which were washed into the surrounding ocean due to tropical rains. The local fishermen had complained for years that their take was decreasing rapidly.
Don't get me wrong, I like bananas. But I have stopped buying non-organic fruit, despite the high price and limited availability of organic produce. Eating less, enjoying it more
Perhaps this article, and others dealing with fruit/produce etc. could benefit from additional information regarding the healthy, (or otherwise!), production methods involved.
I would be willing to do some research and submit the extra data.

Lovely. I've read it before. Thought it was good then and still think it's good now.

Regarding the point made by abhean taleisin, I saw a programme a little while ago about birth defects in the children of banana plantation workers, caused by the pesticides used and how the companies that owned the plantations had refused to pay them any compensation.

It would be good to see such information included, if you have the inclination.

Thanks, guys!

The amount of information I've found on the net is enough to write another entire article. What I read was actually quite horrifying. The pesticides that they're spraying over Costa Rica and other areas are not approved for human consumption. Some are banned outright by the Costa Rican government. The plantations are sprayed by air, and the workers aren't given protective clothing, or even a warning to get out of the way. Some have died from exposure. Others are suffering miscarriages, rashes, headaches, etc. Birth defects are much higher than average. I read one statistic where 9 out of 1000 children were born WITHOUT BRAINS! I didn't find a lot of information on the pesticides killing the fish, but from all accounts, the amount of pesticides they're spraying in the air is enough to kill everything.

Not to mention the Chiquita banana problem of dealing with labor unions. A subsidiary company of Chiquita is suspected of killing a labor union president. The village of Tacamiche was evacuated and bulldozed, evidently to remove union supporters. By some accounts, workers were beaten, and women and children held at gunpoint while their homes were destroyed. Chiquita has shuffled workers around to keep them from acquiring health and work benefits, and to eliminate labor solidarity. It's hard to organize a union when your members keep disappearing.

Chiquita's apparently also guilty of smothering small banana companies. They own quite a bit more of Costa Rica than they can legally own, so they farm it out through subsidiaries.

And, get this -

[copyrighted material removed by moderator]

- Philadelphia Enquirer

Chiquita Co. presented a libel suit against the Philadelphia Enquirer, and because the information the articles were based on (voice mail tapes) was illegally acquired, they have published an apology and retraction since. But the providers of the information that the articles were based on have come forward and protested, saying that the articles were factual.

(As you can see, I found a LOT of info! If you want to read more, do a search in Yahoo for 'banana plantation pesticides.')

- Lentilla

Isn't appalling the way some companies behave in order to make a profit when there's nobody to stop them? Very upsetting.

If you're going to do a whole new article on the outrages carried out by the banana companies, I'll look forward to reading that.

The moderators removed my quote from the Philadelphia Enquirer story, so they're doing their job well - it hadn't occured to me that it would be in violation of the rules. So here's a condensed version in my own words...

Chiquita has been accused of trying to kidnap a consultant for Fyffes, an Irish banana company. Other charges including fraud, hiring paramilitary to destroy shipments of Fyffes bananas and harass the growers during the 'banana wars' in Honduras in 1990.

- Lentilla

Good Grief.. Banana wars! I had no idea!

There are a few other topics I will be looking into over the next few months, but now I think I'll have to look more closely at this fruit thing.

In my part of the world we grow peaches, apricots, plums, various berries, and some of the most incredibly yummy apples. Although mainstream growers still rely on chemical agents to control pests, there are ever increasing numbers who use biological controls, such as ladybugs to kill aphids, and other non-toxic techniques such as sticky traps.

Some of the local orchards are certified organic, which means the soil itself has to pass rigorous government testing. These orchards and farms cannot even use chemically treated fenceposts within a certain distance of their crops.

I wonder what kinds of regulations, or lack of same, there are in developing countries? It is scary, and disappointing, and depressing.

Taleisin - where do you live? It sounds wonderfully idyllic!

Regulations are determined, unfortunately, by the people that have the most money. Places like Mexico and Costa Rica are being destroyed by big businesses, because it's cheaper to operate there than in areas that enforce their regulations. Labor is cheap, and there's nobody to sue you if you spray pesticide in the wrong place. And there's no pollution controls.

But I've been reading more about this phenomenon, and I think we're approaching it from the wrong angle. The reason Chiquita sprays so many chemicals is that their main export, the Gran Cavendish yellow banana, is susceptible to a fungus. If they grew more varieties of bananas, then they wouldn't be so dependent on chemicals. (And like you mentioned, used organic methods instead of chemical)

Which makes me think about foot & mouth, and BSE - we wouldn't be having so many problems with these livestock diseases if we bred a greater variety of animals, and kept them in smaller groups. Maybe that paper will be about "the dangers of monoculturism in large societies" or something like that... Sounds dangerously thesis-like - too bad I'm no longer in school!

- Lentilla

Well whatever happens to this entry I have now linked into it from mine on the Eden Project http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A521128 so I hope this one get's re-instated befre mine gets subbed otherwise I think the link gets lost

CH

Hello,

And I thought it was shocking this entry didn't have a recipe for banana bread (the perfect use for brown mushy bananas), but this info about pesticides, union busting, etc. really turns my stomach...

Yours,
Jake

This entry DOES need a recipe for banana bread - that's one of my favorite uses of bananas.

Yeah, talking about turning your stomach - I happened to chance upon one of the more grisly horror stories about a death from pesticide spraying when I was eating my lunch... bleah.

Editorial Note: This thread has been moved out of the Peer Review forum because this entry has now been recommended for the Edited Guide.

If they have not been along already, the Scout who recommended your entry will post here soon, to let you know what happens next. Meanwhile you can find out what will happen to your entry here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/SubEditors-Process

Congratulations!

Well basically says it all, I had to recommend it so my link in the Eden Project entry stayed put post editing, oh, that and it being an excellent entry

CHawke

Cool! Thanks - I guess I'll have to do another entry on third-world plantation farming now... I was still trying to figure out how to put all that depressing information into a cheerful article on fruit!

- Lentilla

That's just great. This entry belongs in the guide.

I'll be looking out for your less uplifting but informative article on the problems with third world plantations. People need to know about such horrors. That's how things get changed - people hearing about outrages and kicking up a stink.

~ Applauding ~

Well done! And if you want to confabulate on the third-world/multi-national/bad fruit-growing... er, thing, just let me know...

Wow great entry .. of course it was a great entry the last time I edited it too .... ah politics.

~Beeblefish (Passed Off at the Forking Moderators)

They're just doing their job - I envision a frantic scanning of all the text in the Guide archives, done late at night by bleary-eyed moderators hunched over their keyboards, with a four-hour deadline before the Guide went back on line. They were bound to make a few errors in judgement calls - it's surprising that they didn't make more.

Still, I was a little aggravated when I found that one of my articles had disappeared and could not be retrieved. Fortunately, I had backed up the text on my hard drive.

Everything's cool now...
Time for a and a

Dang it! Still no banana smilies.