Smart Alliance: How a Global Corporation and Environmental Activists Transformed a Tarnished Brand.

Many books offer advice for making corporations environmentally friendly, but it's seldom heeded. Taylor and Scharlin explain how one company transformed itself for the sake of environmentally responsible banana farming. Chiquita Brands was known as a paternalistic organization that--originally as the United Fruit Company--had notoriously exploited Latin American people and resources for nearly a century. Then, in the early 1990s, the company turned to the Rainforest Alliance--an organization devoted to sustaining rainforests and ensuring the health and safety of workers. Authors Taylor and Scharlin chronicle the year-by-year changes at Chiquita to gain the alliance's seal of approval. A new business model now governs the company and its farming community. No other large banana grower has followed Chiquita's lead, the authors lament. Nevertheless, they offer hope that Chiquita Brands can be an example in a globalized economy to inspire other companies to become environmentally, socially, and financially responsible. Yale U Pr, 2004, 278 p., h&w photos, hardcover, $30.00.