The Political Ecology of Banana Exports and local Food Production in St. Vincent, Eastern Caribbean

In St. Vincent and the Grenadines in the Eastern Caribbean, export banana production is expanding at the same time that local food production is declining and food imports are rising. When export agriculture is accompanied by such changes, the general assumption in much of the development literature, including political ecology, is that export agriculture has undermined local food production, leading to insufficient food supplies and thereby requiring increased food imports. This study, based on twelve months of field-work during 1988–89, employs a political-ecological perspective and asserts that in the case of the Vincentian banana industry, these assumptions are not valid. Conflicts between export agriculture and local food production in relation to the allocation of land and labor that could undermine food production are, for the most part, not of major significance. Unequal control over land has contradictory effects on the relation between export production and local food production, reflecting the influence of both political-economic and environmental variables. Declines in food production in banana-producing areas are related primarily to the contrasting political-economic contexts of producing and marketing local food crops and bananas produced for export. Changing dietary preferences and problems in wage labor recruitment also help account for decreases in food output. A political-ecological perspective should highlight not only the impact of political-economic relationships on resource-use patterns but also the significance of environmental variables and how their interaction with political-economic forces influences human-environment relationships.