What Chiquita does not want you to know:

The following links contain excerpts from a series of articles from the Cincinnati Enquirer detailing inhumane labor conditions, environmental crimes and much more from the Chiquita banana company. Chiquita's response to this has been to forcibly quash the story, taking the Enquirer to court and strongarming them into a settlement by which the Enquirer must print a misleading apology and pay Chiquita $10 million. None of the allegations in the articles were disproven, rather Chiquita was able to use the interception of internal voice mail as their legal basis for bludgeoning down the story. They seem deeply concerned about executive privacy while little things like de facto slavery, poisoning, intimidation by thugs, and bribery don't seem to bother them much. It seems Chiquita would like to keep their obscene crimes a dirty little secret.

Please note that any links to the original Enquirer site you find will only point ot their milquetoast apology for offending Chiquita. This is a sad reflection on the so called freedom of the press claimed by our pseudo-democratic government.

Of course under these conditions it is inappropriate to buy Chiquita bananas if you give a damn about others on our planet. Just in case you thought their major competition, Dole, was any better, check these out:

For those of us who like bananas, I recommend going organic. You would be spared poisonous residues and not be supporting hideous conditions of slavery in the third world. Well worth tens of cents a pound extra. If you have web access, chances are you can afford it easily. For an organic banana distributor, follow the link below:

If the above was not enough, the people of Honduras are paying a really stiff price for your bananas since hurricane Mitch devastated their country. Honduran and international environmental activists have widely noted the death and devastation was made much worse by deforestation and destruction of riparian habitats to make way for commodity agriculture such as the banana plantations. While the banana companies put on a big show of sending aid to Honduras, it is their policies that led to much of the destruction. See the following links:

Also of note: CORRUPTION. Chiquita has bribed both Clinton and Dole into being their loyal servants. Just a small sampling of the available links: