Dan Koeppel > Quotes

“A banana tree isn’t a tree at all; it’s the world’s largest herb. The fruit itself is actually a giant berry.”
― Dan Koeppel, Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World

“It isn't fair to blame the banana industry for all of Colombia's problems. But it is important to point out that in that country and throughout Latin America the destabilization resulting from banana-related interventions created a tradition of weak institutions, making it difficult for true democracy and fair economic policies to take hold. The Latin American tradition of governments not supported by the general population, and propped up by overseas commercial interests, was created under the authorship of United Fruit.”
― Dan Koeppel, Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World

“Life is getting more complicated, but it seems the more artificially complex man’s affairs become, the more he yearns for the fundamentals, the things of earth.” The “boom in birds,” Peterson concluded, “seems to be an antidote for the pressures and artificialities of the modern world.”
― Dan Koeppel, To See Every Bird on Earth: A Father, a Son, and a Lifelong Obsession

“The damage United Fruit had done to Latin America was beyond imaginable and, even as the Cavendish shift occurred, beyond healing. The dictatorial governments the company installed in Guatemala and Honduras ruled their respective countries for decades, releasing wave after wave of abuse, assassination, and even genocide. In Guatemala, death squads sponsored by the successors to banana-installed governments roamed the countryside, killing anyone suspected of being-or even becoming--a left-wing sympathizer. That meant just about anyone who labored on a banana plantation, and their families. It was the obscene, logical extension to the sentiment that had crushed Jacobo Arbenz and his efforts to bring justice to the country's banana lands. Over 100,000 native Mayas died at the hands of the Guatemalan military; tens of thousands more fled the country (most now live in the United States).”
― Dan Koeppel, Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World