Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
I was held responsible. And one time they found a [case of] Moko that
I had missed—they wanted to suspend me but the foremen never did
it—however, it put me on my toes.
52
United Brand's 1972 Banana Operations Manual instructed foremen to
maintain up-to-date lists of their Moko inspectors. All personnel changes
had to be cleared through a district supervisor (a degree of centralization
thatdidnotexistpriortothemid-1950s).Themanualalsoinstructedfore-
men to assign inspectors to the same area so that ''if an old Moko case is
found which was obviously missed on the previous cycle, it is then pos-
sible to pin point which man was lax in his work. If men know [that] their
work can be checked, they will be more e
cient.''
53
Highlighting the need for careful supervision of Moko inspectors,
United Brands' researchers described a ''classic example'' of what could
happen when all controls were not ''strictly enforced'':
When the experiment was initiated, the farm overseer was very
interestedinMokocontrol....Thisoverseerwastransferredand
another took over [who] initially did not pay attention to Moko and as
a result there was a general relaxation of control measures, the most
serious being the surveys. The surveyors are to cover an area based on
an eight-hour day. In San Juan [farm] surveyors often left the field by
10:30 which means they worked 4-5 hours and only superficially
covered the assigned acreage. In addition, surveyors are sometimes
used for other work so there might be only five surveyors instead of
eight. Irregardless [sic], they still manage to leave at approximately
the same early hour.
54
The hasty survey work resulted in a sharp rise in Moko some two months
after the new overseer took charge. From the scientists' perspective, the
moral of the story was clear: effective Moko control required conscien-
tious workers and vigilant supervisors. But the research department's re-
ports also revealed some of the underlying tensions in the company's
attempts to minimize fruit losses and labor costs simultaneously. For
example, Moko inspectors worked under two-week contracts that paid
them on a per-acre basis—hardly terms of employment likely to promote
thorough inspections. In a 1971 report, company scientists acknowledged
that the only way to reduce the costs of Moko control would be to lower
the frequency of surveys, suggesting that wages could not be realistically
diminished.
55
