The works of the roots of the vines, of the trees, must be destroyed to keep up the price, and this is the saddest, bitterest thing of all. Carloads of oranges dumped on the ground. The people came for miles to take the fruit, but this could not be. How would they buy oranges at twenty cents a dozen if they could drive out and pick them up? And men with hoses squirt kerosene on the oranges, and they are angry at the crime, angry at the people who have come to take the fruit. A million people hungry, needing the fruit- and kerosene sprayed over the golden mountains. And the smell of rot fills the country. Burn coffee for fuel in the ships. Burn corn to keep warm, it makes a hot fire. Dump potatoes in the rivers and place guards along the banks to keep the hungry people from fishing them out. Slaughter the pigs and bury them, and let the putrescence drip down into the earth.
There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation. There is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize. There is a failure here that topples all our success. The fertile earth, the straight tree rows, the sturdy trunks, and the ripe fruit. And children dying of pellagra must die because a profit cannot be taken from an orange. And coroners must fill in the certificate- died of malnutrition- because the food must rot, must be forced to rot. The people come with nets to fish for potatoes in the river, and the guards hold them back; they come in rattling cars to get the dumped oranges, but the kerosene is sprayed. And they stand still and watch the potatoes float by, listen to the screaming pigs being killed in a ditch and covered with quick-lime, watch the mountains of oranges slop down to a putrefying ooze; and in the eyes of the people there is the failure; and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.
― John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath
This is a customer problem. Those farmers would happily sell those bananas. Customers, (and that includes anyone buying a banana), will NOT buy odd looking or blemished fruits or vegetables. Y'all just want the perfect ones.
So if you want to piss on capitalism, (for all its other many flaws). You better also be pissing on yourself in this instance. Customers set the tone here. And that's where the blame lies in this case.
Yeah! I would never take the option I have literally never been given! How dare I cause 40% of bananas to be discarded!
Clearly the system works, if I'm making decisions like this. Markets are so efficient, they find my preferences before I do.
Sell them in a low-income neighborhood for slightly less profit, it's not that complicated.
How many customers do you think are going to Guatemala to buy bananas?
You go to the grocery store to buy them. The grocery store has had plenty lessons on just what you will buy and what you won't. The grocery store won't buy those odd bananas from their distributor because they have learned that YOU won't buy them. The distributor won't buy the odd bananas because they also know you won't buy them. And neither the grocery or the distributor want to buy a product they know they will end up having to pay for disposal costs when those bananas go bad because you refuse to buy them. And this goes for all the produce in the store. Only the very finest and freshest produce for you!
Someone needs to eat the cost of disposal of things you won't eat because it's not good enough for you. And I'm fine with Dole and Chiquita eating those costs.
The way the math works it will always be more profitable to destroy some amount.