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This is really playing out well for Wal-Mart. They have Transfair in their mits - using Paul Rice as a mouthpiece for Sam's Club...then on the other end they are building the most threatening WMD the banana world has ever known....the 39 cent/lb. banana. Read more...
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.
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...
It's Father's Day, so I don't have much time to blog today, but I wanted to get the word out that Smithfield Foods (featured prominently in Food, Inc and in recent swine flu news) is threatening the maker of new documentary Pig Business with a defamation lawsuit. I heard about this from the person tweeting for Pig Business on Twitter. Read more...
A new foodumentary, Bananas! (trailer), has Dole Food Co.'s full attention. From the LA Times: Read more...
What could be more innocent and harmless than a banana?
Well, when a U.S.-based fruit company chooses to pay off paramilitaries in Colombia, it's time to start paying attention to the tallyman who brings you your bananas.
From Phyllis Robinson at Small Farmers, Big Change comes this devastating story:
