when bananas are cheap, they come at a human cost

[fl0wer]

Yet more reasons to choose fairtrade.

Unacceptably harsh conditions for plantation workers, enable certain UK supermarkets to sell at 68p/kilo.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/feb/25/how-much-cost-growers-bananas-68p-per-kilo

[PokerTime]

Sadly, whilst we are kept seperated from where our food comes from and how it gets here, people will not care enough to force the corporations to put people before profit. I totally agree with regards to buying fairtrade, but with wholsesale food prices going up I can't see the situation improving any time soon. Capitalist free market economics depends on the subjegation of labour, which amounts to wage slavery for many more people on the planet than those protected by minimum wage legislation.

The same could be said about land grabbing...a growing problem by corporations in Africa or the demand for ivory having seen the elephant population in one part of Africa demise from 60,000 in the 70's to just 2,000 today. Imagine a world without elephants! Well it may well just happen. The demand for ivory from China is bigger than all of the elephants on the planet.

None of it is pleasant, but for anything to change, there has to be a fundamental shift in thinking on the value of people, labour, resources, wildlife (I could go on) none of which will happen whilst the masters of the universe are ruthless profiteers.

[El Pibe]

Longer term the problems of exploitation will lessen, we're already seeing the urbanisation of the third world affect tea harvests as they struggle to attract labour, the obvious solution will be increased wages.

The real threat to your cash crops is the pressure on land for real crops to feed those megacities and of course the dreaded palm oil to power them.

All of which is actually good for the residents of the third world, less so for your 69p bananas!!