Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
million bunches in 1913 to 5.5 million in 1919. 59 By the late 1920s, Standard
Fruit's subsidiaries controlled some 23,000 hectares of land in Atlántida. 60
In addition to bananas, the companycultivated forage, citrus fruits, coco-
nuts, and sugarcane.
By the end of the 1920s export banana production dominated the
major river valleys of the Costa Norte. In 1929 a record 29 million bunches
left Honduran shores, a volume that exceeded the combined exports of
Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, and Panama. 61 Some 1,500 kilometers
of railroad, stretching from the Guatemalan border to the Black River,
linked banana farms to the region's major ports, including Puerto Cor-
tés, Tela, La Ceiba, and Puerto Castilla. United Fruit's subsidiaries pos-
sessedmorethan160,000hectaresofland,includingsome30,000hectares
of bananas and 6,000 hectares of pastures. The Cuyamel Fruit Company
held 55,000 hectares of land that included 22,000 hectares in bananas,
sugar, and coconuts. Standard Fruit's Honduran subsidiaries owned or
leased 23,000 hectares in the department of Atlántida, in addition to sev-
eral thousand hectares in Colón. 62 Non-company banana farms occupied
an additional 10-12,000 hectares of land.
The rapid expansion of export banana production between 1912 and
1930 transformed the North Coast's landscape. Vast expanses of forested
lowlands gave way to railroads, banana plantations, pasturelands, and
human settlements (between 1910 and 1935, the region's human popula-
tion tripled, rising from 65,048 to 198,836 persons). 63 Extensive systems
of irrigation ditches, drains, spillways, dikes, and canals reshaped the re-
gion's hydrology.The export banana industry's invasion of space unques-
tionablyreducedbiologicaldiversity.Still,theimageofa''seaof bananas''
should not be pushed too far. Many ecological zones, including swamps,
mangroves,hillsides,andmountainswerenotconducivetoexportbanana
production. Significant areas of land were taken up with coconut groves,
pasture,sugarcane,corn,beans,andothercropscultivatedforsubsistence
and local markets. Entering the 1930s, then, the North Coast's majorallu-
vial valleys consisted of thousands of hectares of Gros Michel monocul-
tures interspersed with more biologically diverse landscape patches.
People were not the only organisms drawn to the North Coast dur-
ing this period of rapid change. Sometime between 1910 and 1915, banana
growers began to noticeyellowand withered leaves on some of their Gros
Michel plants.Upon cutting the plants' pseudostems with a machete, cul-
tivators found purple-brown vascular tissues that gave off a strong odor.
Mostsignificantly,thediseasedplantsgenerallyproducedverylowquality
fruit, if they produced any at all. 64 In 1916, United Fruit Company soil
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