Forests - Environmental Transformations - page 92

Following its formation in 1899, UFC endeav-
oured to increase its fruit production and supply
capacity. It did this through investment in its
shipping fleet (its so-called Great White Fleet),
which would bring its bananas to North America,
and through the acquisition of more land in
tropical states where banana production was most
productive. Building on Minor Cooper Keith's
existing political connections in Central America,
UFC acquired land and won valuable tax breaks
for its operations. Over time, UFC expanded its
corporate interests and starting to buy up radio
broadcasting companies, postal services and
established sugar and palm oil plantations (see
Figure 5.5) . During the middle decades of the
twentieth century, UFC was one of the largest
employers in the whole of Central America and
acquired significant political influence in all the
countries within which it operated. It was in the
context of such circumstances that UFC started to
exploit its global reach and corporate power in
ways that were socially and ecologically damaging.
In his thoroughly engaging account of the
activities of UFC, Jungle Capitalists: A Story of
Globalization, Greed and Revolution , Peter
Chapman (2007: 7) describes the corporation's
economic philosophy in the following terms:

5.4 JUNGLE CAPITALISM: THE
CASE OF THE UNITED
FRUIT COMPANY

5.4.1 The United Fruit Company and
the early drive to globalization
The first case study we consider concerning the
connections between globalization, MNCs and
deforestation is provided by the United Fruit
Company. The choice of this case study requires
some explanation. The need for explanation stems
from the fact that the United Fruit Company
(hereafter UFC) is not a multinational timber
corporation or major retailer of timber products.
Notwithstanding this point, this section focuses
on UFC for three important reasons: 1) because
the activities of UFC are an early example of the
globalizing activities of a truly MNC; 2) because
of the significant impact that the activities of
UFC had on the tropical rainforests of Central
America; and 3) because UFC provides a salutary
lesson in what the unchecked power of MNCs
can lead to.
The UFC was officially established on the 30
March 1899 (Chapman, 2007). By this point, how-
ever, it already owned land in Costa Rica, Panama,
Colombia, Cuba, Jamaica and the Dominican
Republic, which collectively constituted some
50,000 acres (Chapman, 2007: 49). In essence, UFC
was an amalgamation of the America businessman
Minor Cooper Keith's tropical fruit interests in
Central America and the Boston Fruit Company.
Over the course of the twentieth century, UFC
would become one of the dominant players in the
international fruit trade and almost develop a
total monopoly on the production and transporta-
tion of bananas. The only reason that you may not
have heard of this company today is because it was
renamed Chiquita Brands International in 1984.
The next time you buy a Chiquita banana (with its
famous blue and yellow label, replete with an
image of a gyrating woman wearing a hat full of
fruit), you are forming a direct connection with the
story we are about to hear.

United Fruit set the template for capitalism,
the first of the modern multinationals . . .
There were older companies than United
Fruit . . . but they had been stay at home
types . . . It had set up its own enclave in
Central America, a network of far-flung
plantations and company towns that acted
as an experimental laboratory for capitalism.

Chapman recounts how UFC was able to use its
power and influence to ensure that its economic
activities in Central America were free from
unwanted governmental regulations and inter-
vention. Chapman describes the extraordinary
lengths that UFC would go to in order to preserve
their operational freedoms through the case of
Guatemala in the 1950s. Following the election