Dole Food Company
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| Type | Private company |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1851[1] as Castle & Cooke |
| Founder(s) | James Dole |
| Headquarters | Westlake Village, California, USA |
| Key people | David H. Murdock Chairman[2] |
| Industry | Produce |
| Products | Fruit Vegetables Flowers Other food products |
| Revenue | US $7.7324 billion (2008)[3] |
| Net income | 121.0 million (2008)[3] |
| Employees | 40,900 (2009)[4] |
Dole Food Company, Inc. is an American-based agricultural multinational corporation headquartered in Westlake Village, California and is the leading grower and packer of such food items as bananas, pineapples (fresh and packaged), grapes, strawberries, and other fresh and frozen fruits. It is a leader in ready-to-eat packaged salads and other vegetables. The company has a fresh flower division called Dole Flowers.
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[edit] History
The company traces its origin to the 1851 establishment of Castle & Cooke by missionaries Samuel Northrup Castle and Amos Starr Cooke. Castle & Cooke rapidly became one of the largest companies in Hawaii, investing in shipping, railroad construction, sugar production, and seafood packing. The other half of Dole's corporate heritage, The Hawaiian Pineapple Company, was founded in 1901 by James Dole, who opened his first pineapple plantation in the central plateau of the Hawaiian island of Oahu.
In 1932 Castle & Cooke purchased a 21% interest in the Hawaiian Pineapple Company. In the 1960s Castle & Cooke acquired the Hawaiian Pineapple Company and the Standard Fruit Company and renamed the company "The Dole Food Company, Inc" in 1991. It was then the U.S.'s second largest producer and importer of bananas. Dole and Chiquita remain the top two U.S. banana companies.
Today the company does business in over 90 countries and takes in upwards of $5.3 billion in annual revenue. It is owned by billionaire David H. Murdock.
Castle & Cooke Inc, a real estate company, was spun off in 1995; it is currently a separate company but is also owned by Murdock.
Historically, the Hawaiian Pineapple Company had a hand in the hostile overthrow of Hawaii's last queen, Liliʻuokalani, and the establishment of Hawaiʻi as a U.S. territory. Sanford Dole, the cousin of James Dole, was briefly president of the Republic of Hawaiʻi in the years immediately following the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy, in 1893. [5]
Dole also has a plantation in the Philippines and a packing plant in Thailand.[citation needed] PepsiCo distributes Dole's Single Serving Juices.[6]
Dole has also supported the video games Super Monkey Ball and Super Monkey Ball 2 by using bananas that have the Dole logo over them.
[edit] Criticism
Dole Food Company is among three major fruit companies cited for exploiting workers in developing nations. [1] The company is named as a defendant in a wrongful death lawsuit filed on behalf of 73 heirs of victims of paramilitary violence in Colombia. [2].
In 2007, Nicaraguan plantation workers with Juan Dominguez as the lawyer representing them sued Dole claiming the use of illegal pesticides like Nemagon had made them sterile and over general mistreatment. The suit and two others were subsequently thrown out by California courts after it was concluded that “[c]ontrary to their sworn testimony, most of the plaintiffs never worked on Dole-affiliated banana farms and none were involved in the DBCP application process”, while other lawsuits are pending in U.S. and Nicaraguan courts.[7]
Swedish director Fredrik Gertten made a documentary film about Dominguez and the banana workers, completed before the finding of fraudulent testimony. The movie Bananas!* premiered in the 2009 Los Angeles Film Festival, with Dole threatening to sue the festival if they allowed it to participate in the documentary film competition. [8][9][10][11] Although the film was screened with a disclaimer from the festival, Gertten was subsequently sued for defamation by Dole.[12]
[edit] Legacy
The Guinness Book of World Records (2001) lists the pineapple maze at the Dole Plantation in Oahu, Hawaii as the world's largest maze.[13]
The Dole Nutrition Institute (DNI) was founded by David H. Murdock to “Feed the World with Knowledge” through research and education regarding the health benefits of a plant-based diet.
[edit] Products
Some of Dole's products contain insect-based (cochineal) coloring[14] and are therefore not suitable for vegetarians or for people allergic to said insect.
[edit] Mascot
Bobby Banana is a mascot of Dole Food Company. He is an anthropomorphic banana character, who appears in print as well as (at one time) foam incarnations. A foam figure of Bobby Banana was produced for some time, which was eventually discontinued.[citation needed]
[edit] Food safety
In 2005, 23 people in Minnesota were sickened with E. coli O157:H7. The source of the bacteria was found to be Dole brand bagged lettuce.[15] Then in 2006, another E. coli outbreak that caused over 200 people to become ill and killed 3 more was linked to bagged spinach sold by Dole. The spinach was processed by Natural Selection Foods in California.[16]
[edit] References
- ^ Dole: Company History (Retrieved November 29, 2007)
- ^ Hoover's: Dole Food Company, Inc. Factsheet (Retrieved November 29, 2007)
- ^ a b Fortune 500 2009: Top 1000 American Companies - Dole Food
- ^ Dole Food Company Inc.: Private Company Information - BusinessWeek
- ^ Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change From Hawaii to Iraq by Stephen Kinzer, 2006
- ^ "Sierra Mist". http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/comic-con-fans-tune-meet-wannabe/story.aspx?guid={2851A8FF-708D-4A25-ACC1-6785096FA701}&dist=hppr. Retrieved on 2008-08-22. "Pepsi-Cola North America, the refreshment beverage unit of PepsiCo, Inc., in the United States and Canada. Its U.S. brands include Pepsi, Mountain Dew, Aquafina, Sierra Mist, IZZE, SoBe, Mug, Tava, Tropicana Twister Soda, Tropicana Juice Drinks, Dole and Ocean Spray single-serve juices. The company also makes and markets North America's best-selling ready-to-drink iced teas and coffees, respectively, via joint ventures with Lipton and Starbucks."
- ^ http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aS5ED.ApmVPk
- ^ http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=20070526180957195
- ^ http://www.bananasthemovie.com/interview-with-director-fredrik-gertten/
- ^ http://svt.se/2.33782/1.1591791/bananas_far_inte_tavla_pa_festival
- ^ "About the film". http://www.bananasthemovie.com/about-the-film/#article. 11 June 2009 - bananasthemovie.com
- ^ http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/07/08/entertainment/e213728D27.DTL
- ^ "Dole Plantation - Hawaii's Complete Pineapple Experience - Maze". Dole Plantation, Inc.. http://www.dole-plantation.com/Maze/maze.aspx. Retrieved on 2008-02-14.
- ^ Dole's Strawberry Kiwi juice
- ^ Minnesota finds E. coli in lettuce bags
- ^ E. coli found in water, wild pig near California spinach farm
