Green | October 14, 2008 | Comment on this video (22)

Toxic Bananas

RosieKuhn
The next time you peel a banana, just stop and think for a second. What has had to be sacrificed for the pleasure? The environment...local people's health....workers rights? The chemicals that are sprayed on the banana are so poisonous that they not only damage the environment but seriously threaten the banana picker's health. And even then they don't earn enough to live on, they are among the poorest in the world. Workers are prevented from forming unions to demand better pay and working conditions. Every time we eat a banana produced under these conditions we are supporting exploitation of the poor and environmental destruction.

In this pod we see the hard work, the sickness, the prohibition of unions, through living with the workers. We see the relations with the plantation owner, the lack of healthcare, the backbreaking work, the worries of feeding a family, or repairing the house. The day to day grind of poverty. This pod will show the reality of what is sacrificed every time we eat a banana that isn't fairly traded.
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22 comments // Toxic Bananas // Video

  • taylortrash
    • 0
      taylortrash  

    • Take a look at Michael Pollan's "Omnivore's Dilemma" this book relates to this video in many ways. organic farming, pesticides, the cost turning a plant into a commodity and how that might affect the cultures that surround them.

      I love this video. its amazing and eye opening.

    • 3 years ago
  • turquoisePatrice
    • 0
      turquoisePatrice  

    • After watching this pod a little while ago, I started to only buy organic bananas. My breakfast should not cause such suffering for these communities.
      There's so much talk about, Is Organic Really Better for Your Heath? and ect. But either way, organic farming is better for the environment and pesticides and fertilizers have been proven to cause serious harm to people that are directly exposed to them.

    • 3 years ago
  • CHANLEEPENG
  • HellaDelicious
    • 0
      HellaDelicious  

    • I just read the book about the United Fruit company as the forerunner of the multi-national companies that are destroying our world. Really good. I love bananas, such a shame how they have been abused. BANANA RIGHTS!

    • 4 years ago
  • molesteban
    • 0
      molesteban  

    • FUCK I ALWAYS WONDERED WHY BANANAS WERE SO CHEAP

      i always figured if i was homeless id eat bananas all day because theyre like 12 cents.
      its the only fruit my poor ass buys, guess ill just keep stealing apples from the nextdoor university cafeteria

    • 4 years ago
  • H0M3GR0WN
  • mamsik
    • 0
      mamsik  

    • is it possible to download the videos from this web-page? the problem is that I want to share it with my work-mates, but we don't have access to internet at work, so i would have to send the video to their e-mail (we use Outlook).

      thanks!

    • 4 years ago
  • ReVOfx
  • art0227
  • tomofnorthcal
  • kThoop
    • 0
      kThoop  

    • Holy smokes would it suck if some huge country monopolized all your agriculture to provide all of it's people some fruit and screwed you over by selling them poisons to spray in the community.

    • 4 years ago
  • ladybee
    • 0
      ladybee  

    • I've been really interested in the necessity of consuming organic produce exclusively; this has definitely captured my attention and heightened my awareness.

      Although disturbing, this pod is excellent.

    • 4 years ago
  • reality_check
  • mistarmookie
    • 0
      mistarmookie  

    • whoa.. eye opener is right. Im actually a bit sad that I didnt know anything about this before the pod. To be honest, blood bananas never crossed my mind... I may have missed this in the pod, but if you dont mind, I was wondering if there is anyway to know what kind of bananas you're buying? Are there special labels on this kind or anything? Great pod and thanks for shining some light on this.

    • 4 years ago
  • D_Lace
    • 0
      D_Lace  

    • So I know you can buy organic fruits in stores like Whole Foods, but aren't the unfair trade practices still behind the production of the bananas? What I'm saying is even on a farm where the fruit is grown with no chemicals, somebody is still being paid 2cents an hour to pick bananas from sun up until sun down. So the workers may not get cancer but they are unhealthy in other ways like from starving or dying from other diseases they cannot afford to treat.
      Is there a company that is organic AND practices a fair trade system?

    • 4 years ago
  • activist_INC
  • ungwigwi
  • reality_check
    • 0
      reality_check  

    • Not caring because it doesn't affect me will eventually lead to problems like this to get bigger and bigger. Once out of hand and the environment destroyed we will beging to suffer as a whole. Then and only then will we do something about it. Too bad it will be too late.

    • 4 years ago
  • holdingapencil
    • 0
      holdingapencil  

    • things like this really have to stop!

      why do we live in a world where we can sacrafice the health and safety of people, just for a quick buck.

      but you know whats worse, people will look at this, not give a dam about it, but if it happend where they lived, there would be public outrage

    • 4 years ago
  • reality_check
    • 0
      reality_check  

    • Wow. An eye opener. It is sad how things are setup to work and hard is it to change them. In the end it is up to the consumer to educate himself and not support this.

      Bananas anyone?

    • 4 years ago
  • holdingapencil
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