Smart Alliance: How a Global Corporation and Environmental Activists Transformed a Tarnished Brand (Yale Agrarian Studies)

Large and wealthy global companies too often fail to acknowledge environmental responsibility or workers' rights. This book tells the dramatic story of one company - Chiquita Brands International - that decided to change the negative paradigm. Formerly the notorious United Fruit Company, a paternalistic organization that gave the name "Banana Republic" to tropical countries in Central America, Chiquita defied all expectations in the mid-1990s by forming agreements with the Rainforest Alliance that transformed not only the corporation itself but also an important segment of the banana industry. Gary Taylor and Patricia Scharlin reveal the inside story of how corporate executives, banana workers, local leaders, and conservation advocates learned to work together and trust one another. Over the objections of skeptical critics, Chiquita and the Rainforest Alliance established a Better Banana "seal of approval" to certify genuine efforts to improve soil and water quality, ensure rainforest conservation, and enhance worker health and safety. This chronicle of their collaboration, told objectively and with extensive documentation, presents a promising new model of cooperative behaviour - a model that shows how multinational companies can become motivated to solve critical global problems. A profit-driven multinational corporation and an upstart group of environmentalists surprise the world and forge an astonishingly successful partnership Large and wealthy global companies too often fail to acknowledge environmental responsibility or workers rights. This book tells the dramatic story of one companyChiquita Brands Internationalthat decided to change the negative paradigm. Formerly the notorious United Fruit Company, a paternalistic organization that gave the name Banana Republic to tropical countries in Central America, Chiquita defied all expectations in the mid-1990s by forming an innovative pact with the Rainforest Alliance that transformed not only the corporation itself but also an important segment of the banana industry. Gary Taylor and Patricia Scharlin reveal the inside story of how corporate executives, banana workers, local leaders, and conservation advocates learned to work together and trust one another. Over the objections of skeptical critics, Chiquita and the Rainforest Alliance established a Better Banana seal of approval to certify genuine efforts to improve soil and water quality, ensure rainforest conservation, and enhance worker health and safety. This chronicle of their collaboration, told objectively and with extensive documentation, presents a promising new model of cooperative behavior--a model that shows how multinational companies can become motivated to solve critical global problems. Contents......Page 9 Timeline......Page 11 Preface......Page 14 Abbreviations......Page 20 Introduction......Page 24 2 Red, White, and Bruised......Page 30 3 Times Change......Page 62 4 Why Bananas and Why Chiquita?......Page 81 5 Strange Bedfellows......Page 95 6 Grass-Roots Snapshots......Page 127 7 Blue Bananas......Page 149 8 Agricultural Antagonists......Page 159 9 ‘‘Daylight Come . . . ’’......Page 174 10 The Many Faces of Corporate Responsibility......Page 195 11 Leveling the Label Field......Page 211 12 Unfinished Business......Page 224 A. Fundamental Conventions of the International Labour Organization......Page 260 B. Chemicals Banned under the Better Banana Program......Page 262 C. Selected Tables from Chiquita’s 2001 Corporate Responsibility Report......Page 264 Notes......Page 274 Selected Bibliography......Page 290 Index......Page 294 J. Gary Taylor And Patricia J. Scharlin. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 267-269) And Index.