This has been eating at me for two weeks so I'm going to get it off my chest.

Many of you may not know this because I don't talk about my family much, but among my maternal family there is a decent sized chunk of land down in Florida that we all call the family farm. It technically is a farm, but most of the rest of the world would probably call it a plantation because we grow bananas. Now you have probably never eaten a banana from my family’s farm because those Brazilian bastards who will not be named have cornered the market with an unbelievably cheap product made possible due to a combination of inexpensive land and wildly cheap labor.

Some member of my mom's family has been running the farm for going on four generations, but it gets harder to stay competitive every year. To keep up with the ever changing world market, we have had to become technical experts in order to maximize profits. We basically have done more with less for years. We turn out more product; of a higher quality; on less land; and still barely manage to keep the bank at bay.

Banana's are a $2.3 billion a year market, and of that the Brazilian bastards who will not be named take home about $1.9 billion. So that leaves the rest of us scrapping over what’s left and that's still a lot of money to be had so it's worth a fight. Virtually all US banana growers compete for the "organic" niche market because nobody can compete for the volume low dollar angle. Well, among those US growers producing organic bananas my family is actually really pretty well known.

It didn't get any airtime on CNN but last year they discovered a banana blight affecting most of US growers. The blight is like a wet black fungus that grows at the base of the trees and its killing off whole farms. Now I may not like a lot of the things that our government does, but they are pretty good about taking care of its farmers when they are really hurting.

A Congressional inquiry was started after last years growing season and because he was identified by the guys in the industry, my uncle was asked to be part of the panel. He has been running the farm ever since my Grandfather retired 33 years ago and nobody can touch his experience in the field. He was a pioneer organic grower and helped open that market as a protected entity in this country. He has taken our family farm and kept it not just technically relevant but actually made us one of the most advanced farms in the country. I know that it's his livelihood and he works the job to take care of his immediate family, but it's also our family farm and you can tell it's a labor of love.

The panel conducted a thorough investigation with the help of about a dozen agriculture departments from state universities around the country as well as the giant chemical corporations. Every angle was looked at and studied until it was time to give their report to congress. My uncle Dave was chose from among the panel to be Chairman and it fell on him to deliver the findings before Congress. I am disgusted to say that he was torn to shreds by fat cat politicians whose campaigns are funded by those Brazilian bastards who will not be named. It was heart wrenching to watch him try to stay calm and present his findings that 33 years of experience, and the full backing of every expert in the field, tell him are accurate. In the end, those fucking suit wearing sharks continued to believe what ever argument would put the most money in their coffers.

How dare they attack Petraus' integrity!