Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
tality'' and failed to play by ''the rules of the game.'' The story also helps
to convey how the ''game'' of growing export bananas was changing in
important ways for fieldworkers.
As late as the mid-1940s, the primary chemical input on export ba-
nana plantations was copper sulfate used to control Sigatoka. Follow-
ing World War II, both the spiraling costs of Bordeaux spraying and the
increasing availability of petroleum-derived pesticides prompted United
Fruittostrengthenitstieswithchemicalcompanies.In1948,Dr.Norwood
Thorton left his position with Union Carbide and Carbon Chemicals Cor-
porationtobecomeUnitedFruit'sheadplantpathologist.Fouryearslater,
United Fruit's Director of Research Hartley Rowe encouraged his staff to
establish ''close contact and cooperation with those chemical companies
working in the field of modern, scientific insecticides and fungicides.''
2
That same year, Dr. Thorton presented a paper at the conference of the
American Phytopathological Society entitled ''The Use of Fungicides in
Central and South America.'' Noting that ''the need for fungicides is evi-
dent on every hand,'' he expressed confidence that the future of Central
American agriculture lay with chemical controls.
3
In Honduras, company
researchers set up dozens of test plots treated with fungicides supplied
by major U.S. chemical manufacturers including DuPont, Union Carbide,
Esso, and R. T. Vanderbilt. Both DuPont and Vanderbilt sent their top
agricultural scientists to Honduras to study the Sigatoka problem.
4
By the late 1940s, United Fruit was making use of organochlorinated
insecticidessuchasDDT,Methoxyclor,Chlordane,andToxaphenetocon-
trol flies, ticks, mosquitoes, and leaf-cutting ants. The research depart-
ment's annual report for 1949 displayed what at the timewas a typical lack
of concern about human exposure to insecticides:
Widespread application of high concentrations of DDT are effective,
but usually leaves a heavy residue deposit that may be unsightly in a
residence. To overcome this, we have, in the case of a few residences,
made applications of Chlordane and DDT at one percent concentra-
tions to the exterior of buildings only. The flooring, sills, uprights and
ground areas under the house, the thick bushes, flowering trees and in
special cases, even the lawns were sprayed. Application of the spray
mixture has always been light and in most cases no unsightly residue
was left.
5
If unaware of the health hazards posed byexposure to DDT, company
scientists quickly realized its limitations. As early as 1951, the research de-
