By Rebecca Cohen

Rebecca has just completed her second year in the faculty of Arts at UBC. Two years ago she spent a year in several different banana producing countries in Latin America, inspiring her to write this piece on the banana industry.

GLOBAL ISSUES FOR BREAKFAST: THE BANANA INDUSTRY AND ITS PROBLEMS FAQ (COHEN MIX)

Bananas are just a fruit, how are they considered a global issue? Although bananas may only look like a fruit, they represent a wide variety of environmental, economic, social, and political problems. The banana trade symbolizes economic imperialism, injustices in the global trade market, and the globalization of the agricultural economy [1]. Bananas are also number four on the list of staple crops in the world and one of the biggest profit makers in supermarkets, making them critical for economic and global food security [2]. As one of the first tropical fruits to be exported, bananas were a cheap way…