Lecture 30: Food Imperialism around the World
This completely enraged Chiquita, and somehow they managed to
convince Bill Clinton to strike back and place a 100 percent tariff
on luxury goods from Europe. As a counterretaliation, Europe
wouldn’t buy U.S. beef raised on hormones, and a full-scale trade
war developed. At the exact same time, Ecuador suddenly enters the market
and starts selling bananas. By paying obscenely low wages and
forbidding unions, they can sell really cheap bananas. Suddenly,
there’s a glut on the market, and the worldwide price drops
dramatically. Chiquita went briefl y into bankruptcy in 2002. The global food supply is subject to forces of international
competition, sometimes with grave consequences for the people
who actually grow these foods. Another perhaps unforeseen
consequence of constructing these massive empires was that
although the conquered peoples were not given citizenship,
they were given the right to move anywhere within the empire.
Frequently, these kinds of movements were encouraged or
sponsored by the European powers to shift the labor force and send
supplies of cheap labor to a place where it was needed.Clarkson, Menus from History.
Higman, Jamaican Food.
Koeppel, Banana.
Krondl, Taste of Conquest.
Pilcher, Food in World History.
Smith, Peanuts.
Vernon, Hunger.Suggested Reading