'The company changed the pattern of the rains, accelerated the cycle of harvests and moved the river from where it had always been." This vivid line is from the book <i>One Hundred Years of Solitude</i>, a magnum opus written by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, a Nobel Prize-winning writer.
In these lines, the Colombian author was painting a portrait of the boom and bust which the Cavendish banana plantation went through, and how foreign banana companies exploited countries in Latin America. Macondo is a fictitious town, but Cavendish was quite real.
I have returned to this book. This time, I cannot help but be afraid as I draw parallels between the Cavendish banana plantation and Phaya Mengrai district in Chiang Rai. More than two years ago, local residents leased 2,700 rai of land for a company owned by Chinese nationals to grow kluai hom, or Cavendish bananas, for export to mainland China. Laos and Thailand are becoming new Cavendish banana plantations for China.
The story came to light early this year after a local community living near the plantation complained about the company's excessive drawing of water from the Ing River. The community accused Hongta International of violating Thai law forbidding a company whose majority shareholders are foreigners from renting farm land or running a farm business.
After media reports, the company was restructured and became Thai-owned. But still it grows bananas for China, and villagers remain fearful of water shortages and conflicts during the dry season.
But we do not need to wait until the next dry season for a conflict. Last week, Thai-PAN, a non-profit monitoring food safety, revealed the results of water and soil testing in areas around the banana farm in Chiang Rai. The test was a follow-up from the National Human Rights Commission's investigation on land and community rights violations last June. Initial results from the tests revealed the soil was contaminated with chemicals used in the Cavendish banana plantation.
At this point you might wonder why we need to be so alarmed? Thai farmers have grown various bananas, including the highly popular Gros Michel, or kluai hom thong; kluai namwa; and golden banana, or kluai kai (which is the latest favourite among Chinese consumers), for decades.
Yet, the Cavendish banana is controversial. Its mass cultivation requires the excessive use of chemical pesticides to yield quantities for export.
There have been reports of banana growers, such as those in Nicaragua, whose health has been affected by exposure to chemical pesticides. Recently, Chinese companies leasing land in northern Laos used chemical substances that affected river ecology. Suffice to say, our fear of becoming a banana republic might not be groundless.
So what will happen if Thailand becomes China's premium Cavendish banana source? Local farmers already are latching on to bananas for export. Chanthaburi grows kluai khai for export to China. Local farmers are gradually shifting their focus to bananas for the Chinese market while rubber, rice and other farm products suffer falling prices at home.
Indeed, our farmers are quite pleased that Chinese importers are buying farm products directly from them -- as long as they can grow fruit to the size and quantity that Chinese importers require. Chinese buyers provide the collection services, and farmers are not at the mercy of falling market prices and rising transportation costs.
I think we need to be fair to all. We need to admit that chemical contamination was a serious problem in our agriculture industry, long before Chinese companies entered the picture.
Widespread chemical use began many decades ago when farmers shifted from small-scale farming to mass cultivation. Since then, there has been a plethora of media reports about chemical contamination in Thai farm products.
The question is: Are Thailand's legislation and regulations on chemical use in agriculture adequate? Our policy-makers badly want Thailand to be a major world food supplier. But can we supply good agriculture products to the world when our land and rivers are polluted? What should we do if we want to be a new "banana republic"?
Now you might wonder what happened to Macondo. In the penultimate chapter, the foreign banana company left town after a bloody crackdown on union workers. The town then suffered from an epic flood and years of continual rain. The town went from boom to bust. It's a relief to know that Macondo is an imaginary town. The reality of our new "banana republic" might be more worrying.
Anchalee Kongrut writes about the environment in Life, Bangkok Post.