AN100 Study Guide - Summer 2018, Comprehensive Midterm Notes - Canada, Wheat, Web Search Engine
AN100
MIDTERM EXAM
STUDY GUIDE
Fall 2018
Group Project Essay
As Canadians, we eat more bananas than any other fruit, 3 billion a year to be exact
(Vimeo, 2011). Globalization, has allowed us to have access to these delicious pieces of fruit for
dirt cheap as we export all of our bananas across Southern areas of the world such as the
Caribbean. Although, little do many of us know, there are some disturbing reasons why bananas
are so cheap for countries like us to buy. As of 2017 and for many years since, banana growers in
other countries are living under severe amounts of poverty because of bananas. As shown in the
documentary Banana Split, Hondura is a prime example of this. American companies are taking
over countries all for the use of banana growth. They consume everything that these countries
have and take over their jobs, houses, education centres and even hospitals and own them to have
all means of control over the citizens of these places like Hondura. They resemble severe
amounts of inequality within the economy by separating the rich from the poor. For example, in
Hondura the Americans who are running these banana companies are living in nice, secluded and
rich areas with nice homes and build small, quaint huts or run down homes for all of workers.
They take control over the citizens and pay them very slim amounts of money for hard and long
hour days as well as laying off many workers which have caused many people to lose their jobs,
homes, education and access to healthcare. Evidently, the company is very rich but the country is
not. This is because the people have no way out of this extreme poverty because if they do not
contribute to the company, they will just move to another location and leave the country with
nothing to survive with. These living conditions in other countries are what make bananas so
cheap in places like our country. As stated before, Canadians love bananas and they are
continuously shipped from Southern parts of the world into our grocery stores. We can ask to
buy fair trade products that guarantee that the places they are coming from treat their workers
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
with respect and compensate good pay but we would not have enough bananas to go around if
we did. Canada is still exporting millions of bananas from places like Hondura and this does not
seem to be coming to an end anytime soon. According to an article by Rabble News by Kevin
Edmonds, 95% of our important bananas come from low cost suppliers in Central and South
America. Only 1% of them are certified as ethically produced fair trade bananas (Edmonds,
2010). Therefore, Canada is still importing too many unethical products like bananas and are still
consuming vast amount of them.
When facilitating a discussion about the institution of a possible new equitable trade policy all
parties that have major claims in such decisions should be acknowledged. Previously in the
banana trade different parties were at the mercy of each other. For example, impoverished
farmers in South America have been in the past and today been exploited by Transnational
Corporations (TNCs) as well, corporations feel the impact of their own sustainable practices.
Starting from both the bottom and the roots, the farmers that work the banana plantations for
long hours in order to produce the fruit that Canada, and the world, loves so much depend on
their bananas and by extension the policies surrounding their trade. In past situations, these
farmers have had to work long, arduous hours of physical labour with payment that represents a
literal percentage (The Canadian Fair Trade Network 2011) of the final price sold in Canada.
Furthermore, with the “race to the bottom” and plentiful availability to other plantations there is
very little in the ways of sustainable job security (Banana Split, 2011). An equitable trade policy
would have to work with farmers so they would be able to take part in decision making, retain
their basic rights as people and workers, and ensure that they are less vulnerable to the fickle
fluctuations of the market giving them security. Furthermore, with increased wages of workers
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
As canadians, we eat more bananas than any other fruit, 3 billion a year to be exact (vimeo, 2011). Globalization, has allowed us to have access to these delicious pieces of fruit for dirt cheap as we export all of our bananas across southern areas of the world such as the. Although, little do many of us know, there are some disturbing reasons why bananas are so cheap for countries like us to buy. As of 2017 and for many years since, banana growers in other countries are living under severe amounts of poverty because of bananas. As shown in the documentary banana split, hondura is a prime example of this. American companies are taking over countries all for the use of banana growth. They consume everything that these countries have and take over their jobs, houses, education centres and even hospitals and own them to have all means of control over the citizens of these places like hondura.
