Banana Capital : Stories, Science, and Poison at the Equator (Digestions)

Brisbois, Ben

University of Regina Press（2025/03発売）

University of Regina Press（2025/03発売）

• 製本 Paperback:紙装版/ペーパーバック版／ページ数 352 p.
• 言語 ENG
• 商品コード 9781779400345
• DDC分類 338.76347720

Full Description

ONE OF CHOICE REVIEW'S OUTSTANDING ACADEMIC TITLES OF 2025

For more than a century, banana plantations and farms in Latin America have defined the landscape and economies wherever these fruits are grown—toxic chemicals, exploited workers, and fragile monocultures are their legacy.

At the southern end of Ecuador's la costa region lies the city of Machala, the self-described "Banana Capital" of the world. There, farmers and workers experience alarming rates of negative health effects associated with widespread pesticide use along with precarious and unsafe working conditions. Banana Capital: Stories, Science, and Poison at the Equator reveals the grim realities of daily life for banana farmers and, beyond that, seeks to understand and address these challenges.

Ben Brisbois's search for understanding leads him back to the 19th-century origins of banana production in the Americas and through over a century of imperialism, bloodshed, and ecological devastation. Along the way, he uncovers how worker-led resistances and the ever-unpredictable ecosystem thwart repeated attempts by powerful multinationals and their government allies to extract more and more wealth from banana plantations at the cost of Latin American health and lives.

Banana Capital reveals the power dynamics of life in the banana industry— dynamics vividly experienced by workers caught in a struggle against corporations prioritizing profit over the health of the land and the community.

Contents

Figures 
Preface 
Introduction

PART 1: 1870 - 1960
El pulpo 
Race to the Equator 
Bananas, Environments, and Histories 
Beyond Its Control 
The Very, Very Tropical Equator 
The Parakeet in the Plantation 

PART 2: 1961 - 2000
An Insult
Cavendish Ecologies
Empire's Guinea Pigs
El fruto del neoliberalismo
Healthy Resistance 

PART 3: 2001 - 2023
A la costa 
Twenty-First-Century Socialism and
Contemporary Forms of Slavery 
A Question of Culture 
The Illness of the Century 
El gringuito 
Same Joke, Different Clown 
Plagas 
The Bananthropocene 

PART 4: GREEN FUTURES
Stories 
Evidence I: Regulating and Litigating Toxics 
Evidence II: Epidemiology and "Developing Countries" 
Shopping 
Noticing 
Plotting 

Acknowledgements 
Glossary 
Notes 
Bibliography 
Index