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So - looks like Chiquita isn't out of the forest yet on being held accountable for financing, aiding, and abetting the intimidation, kidnapping and murder in Columbia.
Chiquita paid the FARC to intimidate labor unions and sabotage rival growers as a means of “squashing competition and assuring defendants of an accommodating labor force,” the families said. Read more...
Win a $25 Gift Card for Seward Co-op and Deli AND Two Tickets to See the MN Rollergirls Bout This Saturday Night
Deadline: Friday, February 5
How do you win?
Go to Seward Co-op in Minneapolis. In the Produce Department is a display of bananas with the name of the farmer who grew those bananas written in chalk. Whip out the phone and email eldragonfff atsymbol gmail dot com, and tell me the name of the farmer (or better, send a pic Or better still, take your picture with a wrestling mask next to the bananas! OK, I'm getting too excited...) Read more...
I want you to think about bananas.
You're not supposed to think about bananas -- you're supposed to just throw them in your grocery cart and eat them without ever wondering how they got to you -- so thinking about bananas is a radical act.
Who grew your bananas? How were they harvested? Do you know what a fair price for bananas is? Read more...
Well looks like this dude will still get to keep his shirt afterall, another tragedy in all of this is that the real news is on the pages of produce rags.
Let me get this right. Can Dole really tout themselves as both a fair trade banana importer while simultaneously breaking the world record for the largest banana display?
Seriously, it's worth watching the video - and check out the price on the heap of over 1,650 cases of bananas. Remember, this transpired in August 2009 NOT 1959.
This just in from indieWIRE:
"Dole Food Company, Inc. has announced that it is dismissing its defamation lawsuit against filmmakers Fredrik Gertten, Margarete Jangard and WG Film AB in the Los Angeles Superior Court, relating to the film 'Bananas!*.'"
This is great news. As you may remember from previous posts, Dole was trying to stop the release of "Bananas," which details Nicaraguan the farm workers' campaign against the company for using banned pesticides that cause sterility. More about the lawsuit here.
So the linkage of Chiquita to the recent coup in Honduras maybe old news to folks, perhaps not even surprising for anyone that's aware of the term "Banana Republic" outside of a shopping mall setting. Read more...
A new lawyer has been retained by the six Nicaraguan men who say that Dole Food Company's pesticide-use rendered them sterile and whose case was thrown out earlier this year. From the LA Times:
Six Nicaraguan men who won a multimillion-dollar verdict in a 2007 jury trial against Dole Food Co. and other U.S. corporations are entitled to the money despite a Los Angeles judge's ruling that cast doubt on the merits of their case, the men's attorney wrote in papers filed Thursday. Read more...
I feel like every time I turn around, I see Dole Foods in the news. Just so all Food Fighters are on the same page, I thought I'd take a minute to tally "the Tallyman" and his appearances in the news of late.
* Dole and Monsanto team up on veggies
I think I had a nightmare about this once. I mean, this is like Doc Ock and Lex Luthor teaming up, only no superhero to call on for a DC/Marvel smackdown. Read more...
The makers of Bananas! contacted me to ask if there's a Food Fighter who might be interested in attending a screening in Los Angeles tomorrow night (Tuesday, June 23). I'm in the Upper Midwest and can't make it. But I'm extending the invitation to you FFF readers. Any Los Angelinos interested in attending and writing a review for Fair Food Fight?
No pay, but I can extend the generous invitation to you so that you can attend the screening gratis. Please contact El Dragón [eldragonfff [the at symbol] gmail period com] ASAP.
Thanks!
