Editing United Fruit Company (section)

===Environmental effects===
The United Fruit Company's entire process of creating a plantation to farm the banana and the effects of these practices created noticeable environmental degradation when it was a thriving company. Infrastructure built by the company was constructed by clearing out forests, filling in low, swampy areas, and installing sewage, drainage, and water systems. Ecosystems that existed on these lands were destroyed, devastating biodiversity.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Tucker|first1=Richard P.|title=Insatiable Appetite: The United States and the Ecological Degradation of the Tropical World|url=https://archive.org/details/insatiableappeti00tuck|url-access=limited|date=2000|publisher=University of California|pages=[https://archive.org/details/insatiableappeti00tuck/page/n56 43]–78|isbn=9780520220874}}</ref> With a loss in biodiversity, other natural processes within nature necessary for plant and animal survival are shut down.<ref>{{cite journal|jstor=4407210|title='Agricultural Exports, Poverty and Ecological Crisis': Case Study of Central American Countries |journal=Economic and Political Weekly |volume=33 |issue=39 |pages=A128–A136 |last1=Siddiqui |first1=Kalim |year=1998 }}</ref>

Techniques used for farming were at fault for [[Biodiversity loss|loss of biodiversity]] and harm to the land as well. To create farmland, the United Fruit Company would either clear forests (as mentioned) or would drain marshlands to reduce avian habitats and to create "good" soil for banana plant growth.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Putnam|first1=Lara|title=The Company They Kept: Migrants and the Politics of Gender in Caribbean Costa, 1870–1960|url=https://archive.org/details/companytheykeptm00putn|url-access=limited|date=2002|pages=[https://archive.org/details/companytheykeptm00putn/page/n47 35]–111}}</ref> The most common practice in farming was called the [http://ebooks.cambridge.org/chapter.jsf?bid=CBO9781139050814&cid=CBO9781139050814A008 "shifting plantation agriculture"]. This is done by using produced soil fertility and hydrological resources in the most intense manner, then relocating when yields fell, and pathogens followed banana plants.

In addition to the loss of biodiversity, many new species were introduced into the environment including the largemouth bass. The largemouth bass, a popular fish in the United States, has been exported and introduced to waters worldwide. Lake Yojoa in Honduras was home to many largemouth bass not native to the region. A group of North American United Fruit Company employees, wanting to indulge in their love for fishing, introduced 1,800 largemouth bass from Florida.<ref>John Soluri (2011). "Empire's Footprint: The Ecological Dimensions of a Consumers’ Republic, OAH Magazine of History" Volume 25, Issue 4, Pages 15-20 [https://academic.oup.com/maghis/article/25/4/15/1037442]</ref> From 1954–55 to about 1970, the bass population greatly impacted the native fish population, and continued to grow. The 55-gallon drums imported by the UFCO has led this American export to grow and become genetically superior in the warmer and longer growing seasons.<ref>Burke, Monte, "[https://www.forbes.com/2005/03/28/cz_mb_0328sport.html?sh=ca93cf23e386 Long Reach of the Largmouth]" (2005).</ref>