We don’t normally think about the supply chain involved in getting the food that you consume on to your table, but it is at times long and tortuous. For example, it has been said that it takes about 50 companies to prepare a can of Campbell’s soup, each one attending to a very specialized task. Although that is true for processed food, the fact is that it can be no different even for foods that require little preparation, and the food industry can be known to be highly political and may have some practices that might make you think twice about whether you really should be eating what’s on your plate or not.
Did you know that the term banana republic, used as a pejorative term to refer to politically unstable countries with corrupt governments, originally referred to Latin American countries that were huge suppliers of bananas? In the early 20th century, the United Fruit Company in the USA held the monopoly on the banana trade in some parts of the world and ruthlessly tried to defend their monopoly whenever possible. Their practices included bribing corrupt governments in Latin America and organizing coups and counter-coups in case the government wouldn’t comply with their demands.
Although we’re most likely long past such unsavoury practices, there is still much more that needs to be done about the food supply chain. Fruit is routinely shipped around the world where it stays in cargo holds for long periods of time and a lot of knowledge is required to ensure that the fruit arrives at its point of disembarkation just about ready to be sold to consumers in that country. To achieve this level of precision, chemicals are sometimes added to the fruit to enable them to ripen just at the right time – too early and the fruit has to sit too long in the warehouse, costing valuable time and space, too late and the entire batch is too rotten to be sold.
Ultimately, we don’t think you’re able to completely avoid all the complications involved in the food supply chain – it’s just too ubiquitous across all categories of food to avoid. Nevertheless, if you want your food uncomplicated, it’s probably best to buy Malaysian, especially from local farms or sources where you know the quality of the produce meets your discerning standards.
