"No eating for free allowed! You must only watch it rot on the beach!"
1mon 10h ago by lemmy.world/u/Agent641 in mildlyinfuriating
What in the orphan crushing machine is this shit?!
https://maritime-executive.com/article/bananas-ahoy-as-overboard-containers-wash-ashore
The cargo company should be prosecuted for littering. Unless they can convince some benevolent locals to go help them clean up the spill.
Members of the British government have been calling for strong efforts to ensure the shipping company and its insurers will pay the costs of the cleanup. Seatrade, which operates the vessel, said its insurers are fully engaged in the process, and in the meantime, volunteers are scouring the beaches, aiding in the cleanup (and possibly taking a few bananas home as a reward).
Oh goodie, the insurers are fully engaged! I'm sure they will help clear the quickly rotting food off the beach just as much as the volunteers who are physically there doing actual work.
God I hate pencil-pusher culture, it's so weird 😂
Thanks for the quote! I realise I replied snarkily - I'm not mad at you of course, just at the quote
its insurers are fully engaged in the process
I am now imagining an insurance office where suddenly an alarm goes off:
The lights turn red, a siren howls, and everyone jumps up from their seats and runs to a garage where black vans are wating with the engines running.
They drive to the beach and frantically start picking up bananas, in a race against time and decomposition.
But alas instead it's a board of lawyers that are engaged in a race to find a loophole to get out of this without spending anything cleaning.
In my area there are independent contractors who listen in on their police scanners. When there is a fire or a break in these contractors show up in a van filled with plywood. As soon as the authorities allow them in they seal the building so no one can get inside. When the insurance company rep shows up they are happy to pay off the contractor because sealing the place prevents further damage.
I bet that van often happens to be parked right around the corner when a building catches fire.
Because it's New York, yes that did happen at least once.
this reminds me of the famous quote in the grapes of wrath
The works of the roots of the vines, of the trees, must be destroyed to keep up the price, and this is the saddest, bitterest thing of all. Carloads of oranges dumped on the ground. The people came for miles to take the fruit, but this could not be. How would they buy oranges at twenty cents a dozen if they could drive out and pick them up? And men with hoses squirt kerosene on the oranges, and they are angry at the crime, angry at the people who have come to take the fruit. A million people hungry, needing the fruit- and kerosene sprayed over the golden mountains. And the smell of rot fills the country. Burn coffee for fuel in the ships. Burn corn to keep warm, it makes a hot fire. Dump potatoes in the rivers and place guards along the banks to keep the hungry people from fishing them out. Slaughter the pigs and bury them, and let the putrescence drip down into the earth.
There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation. There is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize. There is a failure here that topples all our success. The fertile earth, the straight tree rows, the sturdy trunks, and the ripe fruit. And children dying of pellagra must die because a profit cannot be taken from an orange. And coroners must fill in the certificate- died of malnutrition- because the food must rot, must be forced to rot. The people come with nets to fish for potatoes in the river, and the guards hold them back; they come in rattling cars to get the dumped oranges, but the kerosene is sprayed. And they stand still and watch the potatoes float by, listen to the screaming pigs being killed in a ditch and covered with quick-lime, watch the mountains of oranges slop down to a putrefying ooze; and in the eyes of the people there is the failure; and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.
I thought of exactly the same thing!
Their source for it potentially being illegal comes from the daily heil so I would ignore it
As I wrote kn the other post, the daily mail is a shit rag that only publishes ragebait stuff.
Second, the authority in charge of recovery shipwrecked stuff that washes up later clarified that no, they are not going to be arrested.
People should stay away because the local authority needs to clear up, but if you take some and don't impede operations it's ok.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/dec/08/public-urged-to-stay-away-ship-containers-bananas-wash-up-west-sussex
I have reported the post a) for misinformation b) for being from a source so unreliable Wikipedia has banned it c) from a source that is racist and supported the literal 20th century German Nazi party
I included your Guardian link as evidence of the misinformation
The upvote/downvote ratio is beyond recovery now so I encourage others to do the same.
Thank you for clearing that up
"The guards were on the river bank to make sure the poor didn't take the fruit from the river, when that was too expensive it was collected in a pile and doused in kerosene. The hogs were burned as well all for the sake of profit" -grapes of wrath
I honestly think about it to this day. We didn't give milk to the homeless during covid. Farmers dumped it all for profit. We don't grow food to feed We gro food to make profit.
Came to the comments just to make sure that passage was on top.
Great job you figured out capitalism sucks
I don't know anything about British courts, but I doubt that any court is going to find anybody guilty of any major crime for collecting bananas washing up on the beach, for which the corporation that lost them got an insurance settlement to cover the loss. That's salvage, and salvage rights are long established.
I've seen Oliver twist, they are ready to sentence people to jail for this crime.
I mean, that was slightly fictional, although that's the maybe the joke. And set a sesquicentury ago.
That's a big word. You need some reedumacation
Yeah, I futzed with it a bit. At first I did sesquicentennial, but that's purely an adjective which isn't great. Sesquicentenary refers to the day, so that wouldn't work. So, I made a nonce word which, if you know these other two, is clear.
I'll just ignore the insulting tone.
While the coastguard was clear that they didn't mean the bananas
this does not include perishable goods like foodstuffs.
everyone here IS following maritime salvage law.
The "long established" rule is: the owner has all rights to the cargo and wreck, but must compensate those who assist in recovery only if the owner agrees to assistance
The British maritime law that keeps getting referenced here was put into place initially to ensure that people would be compensated completely when assisting.
Previously, when it was a raw 'handshake' agreement, there would be negotiations before helping which delayed assistance, or Party A would screw over Party B with a low-ball reward, or Party B would just nope out of the situation for fear of not getting reimbursed and risk of damaging their own property.
The shipping company in this situation asked for assistance and sent a list of missing stuff, especially since they were threatened with penalties for creating a hazardous waterway. If you find missing stuff, you report it, and the government knows already how much you should be compensated and makes sure you get it. In this case, the company wants their expensive refrigeration equipment.
I have no idea if they offer a reasonable amount, but this was the intent.
british government more protective of bananas arriving on shore than they are refugees
bananas have more rights and people in Britain apparently
Daily Mail propaganda worked I guess. They just warned people because they might not be safe to eat. The government never actually said they'd prosecute anyone it was just a warning.
This government has arresting people for demonstrating against that government's active support of the mass murdering of children in Gaza, so morally speaking, putting bananas ahead of people (even poor Brits who might actually need those free bananas) is nothing in comparison.
Sometimes I suspect that making sure people suffer is their whole point.
Damn
Inb4 this is some archaic law that says all booties washed ashore belong to the monarch or something
There exist an archaic law like that, but it doesn't include all booties, only 'Royal Fish', and imho it would be a stretch to consider bananas as whales or sturgeons.
This case would be under maritime law. Iirc the cargo still belongs to the shipping company if it fell, but would be a 'finders keepers' if they threw it overboard. But I'm not a lawyer (sea lawyer?), I think this is for recoveries at sea, when it's already on shore local laws might apply instead, idk...
OBJECTION! Bananas are the most regal of fish.
exists*
Yup, that's what I meant. Thanks!
Not really archaic - if this was valuable stuff washing up on shore, the law would still be relevant.
Man.....I had no idea the monarchy was so into lathered up clean butts!
They still belong to the owner is the issue at hand, I believe. I.e. taking them would be theft.
The issue is that the owner is easily known.
Prosecuted for what? Enjoying a meal? A succulent, banana meal?
Are they going to fight? I bet they know their judo well!
This is democracy manifest.
Get your hands off my penis, SIR!
Eating beach bananas sounds like a great way to get some kind of weird illness. It's not like there's a nearby banana tree that they could have come from. But maybe I'm just too accustomed to grocery stores
I would just assume that through osmosis those bananas ate salty as fuck, plus I have seen the size of the fucking spiders on some of those bananas being shipped here, no fuck you
The tarantulas have usually abandoned the bananas by the time we eat the bananas.
So you're saving buying a big load of bananas isn't a good way to get a new cuddly spider friend? :(
Oh fuck it's that where tarantulas come from? Bugs are so confusing
Usually
...
Sometimes as I'm tearing a banana from the bundle I picture the tarantulas that might've been crawling all over it, and I wonder if I'm touching the same spot a hairy tarantula has been. I don't like having those thoughts. So I try not to have those thoughts.
They addressed that, actually.
True to the spirit of journalistic inquiry, your correspondent can attest that seawater has not degraded the taste of the bananas, with the only threats to health posed by skin slippage and by eating too many of them.
I assume the spiders would have died, and now you have delicious, brined cooking bananas!
Im sure they come clean if you wash them vigorously by hand.
Wonder what all that banana skin soaked up.
Ocean water that everyone swims in perfectly fine
That delicious plastic and sewage and population. It does a body good.
I don't want to eat the skin
You won’t have to, the edible part of the banana will absorb the skins content.
But it's got all the vitamins!
Cocaine
Definitely peel it first.
Would you eat a banana out of the toilet, as long as you peeled it first?
Yes, without hesitation, although I'd want to rinse it first to avoid cross-contamination.
Banana picking and shipping as it usually happens isn't exactly sterile, either. Or the grocery store where everyone is sorting through them. This is also why you should wash anything you don't peel.
Who's toilet?
You're toilet.
Yeah, some ppl would pay extra depending on whose toilet
Weird, right? On the one hand - we dont eat banana peels. So, it must be fine, right? But on the other hand, I'd also hesitate to eat a snickers bar washed up on the shore.
I mean if you opened the package and it was dry tho?
The works of the roots of the vines, of the trees, must be destroyed to keep up the price, and this is the saddest, bitterest thing of all. Carloads of oranges dumped on the ground. The people came for miles to take the fruit, but this could not be. How would they buy oranges at twenty cents a dozen if they could drive out and pick them up? And men with hoses squirt kerosene on the oranges, and they are angry at the crime, angry at the people who have come to take the fruit. A million people hungry, needing the fruit- and kerosene sprayed over the golden mountains. And the smell of rot fills the country. Burn coffee for fuel in the ships. Burn corn to keep warm, it makes a hot fire. Dump potatoes in the rivers and place guards along the banks to keep the hungry people from fishing them out. Slaughter the pigs and bury them, and let the putrescence drip down into the earth.
There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation. There is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize. There is a failure here that topples all our success. The fertile earth, the straight tree rows, the sturdy trunks, and the ripe fruit. And children dying of pellagra must die because a profit cannot be taken from an orange. And coroners must fill in the certificate- died of malnutrition- because the food must rot, must be forced to rot. The people come with nets to fish for potatoes in the river, and the guards hold them back; they come in rattling cars to get the dumped oranges, but the kerosene is sprayed. And they stand still and watch the potatoes float by, listen to the screaming pigs being killed in a ditch and covered with quick-lime, watch the mountains of oranges slop down to a putrefying ooze; and in the eyes of the people there is the failure; and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.
I never read the grapes of wrath, but I should.
Please do. It's an amazing piece of art.
It took depressingly long for this to be posted
So the rumors are true, good food is indeed illegal in the UK.
Yeah but it's also the daily mail who are reporting this so default assumptions.
One joke
There are more actually. Interested?
yes
Police, customs authorities, and the Receiver of Wrecks have warned beachcombers not to eat the bananas or to take them home.
This is the only mention in the linked article.
But the daily mail said it, it must be correct if the daily mail said it, they're such a reputable and neutral news organisation, they would never just make up wildly misleading, fear mongering click bait headlines.
Honestly, how anyone who can string more than two thoughts together would ever think the DM is a reputable source for a claim is a mystery to me.
People online don't always seem to realise that the Daily Mail is considered THE worst newspaper publication, in the entire UK. It's the sort of thing you wouldn't pick up to line your floor for a new dog.
May I introduce you to the Daily Express
Please do not.
The Morning Star, which last I saw one had a 2 page spread: “STALIN DID NOTHING WRONG “.
I feel like the daily mail is worse. People know the star is full of shit, so don't take it seriously. Whereas some people seem to have a perception of the daily mail that it's somewhat reputable newspaper.
I mean at a fundamental level, it probably is illegal. I don't imagine the original owner stops owning a thing because it fell off the side of a boat, so I'd imagine it's theft or some seafaring equivalent.
Is anyone going to get punished for picking up a banana that's fallen off the side of a boat? I fucking doubt it.
Receiver of Wrecks is a pretty metal title tho. If he's telling me to do something I might listen
Got a loicense for that banana, mate?
I could've sworn the Australian word for banana was bendigo bendy...
Fruity boomerang.
Fruit-shaped union dispute
yes, and for my pet louse
I picture you walking your tame giant isopod hunting for beach bananas...
eric loves the beach
It's "moit", moit!
Fuck the bananas
I want the Cocaine washing up on the shores
I honestly feel like cocaine to a large extent is partially responsible for much of the world's malignant narcissist billionaire evil rulers. And hence, you are not allowed to eat bananas. So maybe the world needs less cocaine, not more.
Naw, we just need equal access to cocaine. Level the playing field with subsidized cocaine I say!
Universal basic coca
Make Coca-Cola Great Again!
Enrich tap water with cocaine
I prefer the theory of the bourgeois that has to live with his community and therefore has to care compared to wall communities and an apartment in dubai.
While true (maybe), if I find a brick of coke I'm 100% busting that down into 8balls and getting it gone quick. I know cokeheads suck but I gotta make a buck too and one isn't that much in the grand scheme of keys.
Tbh we're just lucky I don't turn it into an E-40 song before I break it down.
So maybe the world needs less cocaine, not more.
Woh there with your hot take
Fuck the bananas
No, that's also illegal.
Is it? Dang can't fuck shit in the UK.
In their defense, the warning could just be a CYA thing if someone eats one, gets sick and wants to sue for food poisoning.
Excuse me. There's a sign at Ramsett Park that says "Do not drink the sprinkler water," so I made sun tea with it, and now I have an infection. Sir? Sir, are... are... are... are you listening to me, sir? Sir, I'm talking to you! Sir! Sir, are you aware that there is waste in your water system?
That'd make sense, but they didn't warn about the possible consequences; they warn that you may be prosecuted
Because they have lawyers in retainer. They only speak one language. From their perspective, putting out a threading notice is the cheapest, easiest thing to do.
That's probably the case, or at least a part of it, but it's crazy that it's gotten to that point. If somebody finds a food item in the wild and decides to eat it, the consequences should be 100% on them. It doesn't even have to apply to food, either.
If I find a block heater on the ground, install it into my car, and then my car catches fire; I'm not going to go after the manufacturer of the block heater. I'm the idiot who decided to do something stupid.
That being said there's real life cases which indicate that yes, people are stupid and will sue over their own stupidity, so I'm not surprised at all.
What if you eat the block heater?
Believe it or not, straight to jail.
Highly doubt you’ll be prosecuted or even arrested. I could walk into a grocery store and grab a bunch of bananas and walk out right now and nobody would care, they just be like “that was weird”
As far as I know and remember, in Germany the "Finders Keepers" rule fully aplies on the beach. So if you find something (you are allowed to own) wached up on the beach, you can keep it. And the owner cant do anything about it. A couple of years ago, someone found a container with a motorcycle - and was allowed to own it.
...
Looked it up: They changed it in 1990 - sad :<
Ooh, a glass bouy! OOH, a catamaran! Oh boy, a bale of cocaine!
In the UK you must take reasonable steps to return anything you find to the owner.
If you can't return it to the owner it's yours.
Capital. We should gather all the bananas and return them to the owner (just leave them on their doorstep).
But...
The Charter of the Forest declared that people are free to sustain themselves from the land.
This is the sea no?
oh okay, it's maritime wreckage, and subject to local customs
Bit more nuanced as wreckage and salvaged items are not naturally occuring.
Next thing you'll tell me the front's not supposed to fall off.
Nah, they were dumb enough to lose them, those bananas are fair game.
First. As mentioned by MonkderVierte, not fine but a warning.
Second. I'd really think thrice to pick up washed on the shore bananas, or just about anything edible. Basic hygiene to me. Many would disagree with me and say that one can rinse it off. But I don't know, man. Guess I am a germophobe.
Guess UK government is just trying to protect people from possible health risks. Cause, let's fucking face it. Tons of people have issues with hygiene. You can't expect everyone to at the very fucking least rinse these bananas, let alone rinse them well. Also, can you imagine any world government to proudly tell people "There's bunch of bananas washed up on the shore. Go pick'em up! Free potassium snack!" ?
Sad to see this many of fruit being wasted.
You couldn't pay me to eat a banana that came from the ocean.
It better be washed at least
Second. I’d really think thrice to pick up washed on the shore bananas, or just about anything edible. Basic hygiene to me.
What do you think of potatoes, then, which grow in a mixture of soil and manure? Or carrots?
The beach is a nesting ground of vast biomes of creatures, singled-celled, through to vast arrays of worms, some parasitic, all the way up to burrowing arthropods like sand fleas and their many, many cousins. We don't usually have problems with any of this stuff when we swim or hang out on the sand because... and I cannot stress this enough, we do not eat raw produce we find in the sand.
Please do not eat raw produce you find in the sand.
I wouldn't eat carrots from the ocean either
What about tuna?
I wouldn't eat tuna if it washed up on the beach
I mean, I peel them and wash them right after. Then I cook them in boiling water or fry on a pan. Not eat raw.
Loads of people wash, peel, and eat raw carrots, though. It's not unhygienic at all.
Yep. Lots of us do, me included. The only thing is that I peel them first and then wash them thoroughly before eating. I do not wash bananas. But I also do not buy bananas washed up on the shore.
Quite frankly it's disgusting. That's why I only eat food that has lots of healthy e numbers, MSG, and added sugar. As God intended.
You don't need to rinse the bananas though... You just peel them and throw the peel away, whatever was on the peel does not need to touch anything close to your mouth at all.
I don't think banana peels are waterproof, and the ocean is full of stuff you don't want to ingest.
You need to leave alone the earthly process of food falling off container ships. It's nature's way.
Dailymail is not a reputable source.
This reminds me of when a large whiskey distillery broke in 19th century Ireland and many people died. Not from large quantities of alcohol sweeping people away (something like that happened in London in the early 19th century) but from passerby drinking so much of the stuff they died of alcohol poisoning.
Most Irish way to die ever!
something like that happened in London in the early 19th century
There was also a molasses flood in Boston in 1919
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Molasses_Flood?useskin=vector
That was a sticky way to die!
Anyone that eats the bananas they find on the beach won't need the law to punish them
What's the matter babe, you've barely touched your sea bananas!
They'll turn you into a slave for the sea god
Do you mean they'll be in some way inedible by being submerged in sea water sorry?
Just rinse it well, I'm pretty sure you won't have any problems.
Back in the days in The Netherlands it used to be a hobby/profession called "strandjutter" which means "beachcomber". But these days it is illegal to take stuff which washes up on the shores. It's because it's still considered someone else's property, for the sake of cleanup responsibility, or it could be dangerous if it's toxic or sharp for example. A washed up oil drum could contain nuclear waste or a dumped body, which would be an active crime scene and should stay undisturbed.
So when you think of why they introduces this it's somewhat understandable they made this law. It's just completely stupid when you look at it from a different perspective: it's litter on the beach, why wouldn't it be free to take. Sometimes people find arguments to push a law without thinking how insanely dumb it is. Most of the time it's just pieces of wood and plastic, most beachcombers are artists using it for their art projects. Free litter cleanup. Doesn't mean you can't hold the shipping company responsible for littering.
Especially in this case, maybe the bananas are filled with cocain. That would be awesome!
Also if they still had a significant value and the owner would still like them a passerby claiming then seems injust to.me.
Like finding a wallet or phone on the streets. It's not yours, you should bring it to the police. Sure. But finding a banana?
Why would the law make an explicit difference? If the value is sufficiently low and an owner cannot be located with appropriate effort, take it.
But if the bananas are filled with cocain, the value is significant. I would definitely still take it.
The UK needs to cut some bureaucrat middle management and allocate the funds to the social programs they’ve austeritied into symbolic existence.
The British people really would benefit from all collectively refusing to vote for their mainstream parties and instead voting for independent anarchist parties which try to get rid of as many laws and government institutions and also nationalize anything the people will be better served by, under collective ownership. All it really takes I think is to just talk to people. Tell them to stop voting for those parties and if they can't resist then to stop watching the news media which fills their minds with anxiety.
Laughs softly in spreading American corporate virus
That's not the right direction either. They are both bad, the corporations and the state. Only the people should have power and the people should vote in their own interests and they should not allow states or corporations to operate within their nation unless what they do is squarely in the interests of the people.
While that specific scenario is unlikely, I do hope that Plaid Cymru and the Scottish National Party succeed in dissolving the UK
Well hopefully they aren't full of Nazis. Our revolutionary movement in America got hijacked by Trump and the fascists but people are waking up and realizing Trump is a scum bag. Killing innocent people is only one of his crimes.
instead voting for independent anarchist parties which try to get rid of as many laws and government institutions and also nationalize anything the people will be better served by, under collective ownership.
Once the laws are gone/things are deregulated, the corpos will likely take over. Nationalizing sounds good, but likely won't end well without regulations, imo.
Nationalism is anticorporate if you do it correctly. I am by no mean a fascist, (I'm trans) and I have moderate views on immigration. Also you can just ban the stock market and the collective ownership of companies and also limit their limited liability and go to a hard, Inflation proof currency to plug up the other holes. Corporations cannot compete with small businesses without lobbying for lower tax rates then the working class and relying on low interest loans to buy assets and brands which artificially boost their value in the speculator markets. What I'm asking for is a real free market, where corporations and the people pay the exact same tax rate, so it's fair for everyone. This alone would bring in a good bit more revenue for the state and also simply taxes by getting rid of the micro taxation and property taxes on single property owners and stuff.
Right now Blackstone is holding 60,000 properties in the U.S market, and somehow are paying little property tax on that while working class people who have seen their wages desitigrate over the past 20 years are paying 10s of thousands in property taxes in many cases.
We have the power to nationalize things like the real estate market through wise tax policy, if we choose and this would actually take a ton of pressure off the working class. Just that alone could free up hundreds of dollars/pounds per month for many workers. It could get the average age of buying a first home back down below retirement ages.
"if you do it correctly" holds a lot of weight to this argument. I'd be worried of anyone who wants to start from scratch, instead of building on the current foundation.
You make good points, though. I'm just more skeptical than you.
Doesn't salvage law allow to take the bananas? Or does it not apply anymore If they wash ashore?
This is to keep people safe. Only those that have taken the Banana Self Defense class are certified for consumption of these bananas.
I hope they will sue seagull as well
Those children are criminals that should be punished and locked up! /s
You come at my gleaners you best not miss
I'm gonna go there, eat as many free bananas as I can because wasting food is ew, and use my glowing radioactive body to fuel a sweet rave beach party
Due to the stormy and windy weather in the Selsey area, bananas have been swept off the beach into coastal roads, making for slippery driving conditions in some areas.
"Today, in Cartoon News, it's a Banana Party in Selsey..."
Nobody will notice unless you post it on xitter
Bananas Galore!
The West Sussex Bananna Party.
No banannation without taxation.
time to eat for free
Interesting that the owners want to punish you for "stealing" their bananas, but let me guess... they aren't going to fucking clean them up themselves, are they?
And smell it rot.
Police, customs authorities, and the Receiver of Wrecks have warned beachcombers not to eat the bananas or to take them home
Why though, this is like the first question they should ask
One actual reason I can think of is they haven't passed customs inspections. There's a reason they ask you if you have any fruit or vegetables when crossing national borders, or even some state borders in the US: To prevent the spread of invasive pests. All there need to be is some Brazilian Screaming Mites on those bananas and no plants will ever grow on the island of Britain again.
That’s an actual decent reason instead of the usual fuck the poors ones
Now, when that containership a few years ago wrecked and containers full of BMW motorcycles washed ashore...
I never thought I'd ever defend UK laws, but if you take something that doesn't belong to you, isn't it generally frowned upon in most parts of the world? This seems pretty normal to me
Morally nobody is being deprived of value because the goods aren't saleable and thus no effort will be made to collect them. They are rather insisting that others who would have enjoyed them should simply let them rot. So first you are arguing for moral evil for no purpose. Next it is normally the case that goods that are abandoned on purpose eg making no attempt to collect the bananas cannot be stolen.
Lastly such a threat is absolutely insane.because it is a threat to go after private citizens with the power of the state to punish people for what normally isn't a crime, wasting the publics resources hurting people for doing something that was never morally wrong.
Does this still make sense to you?
Sure, I understand the moral arguments, but it's very common to have legal consequences when taking something that doesn't belong to you — regardless of morals.
Of course it would be morally better to give everyone permission to take the bananas. It sounds like that hasn't happened though, so it seems very simple to understand that there would be legal consequences for taking them.
How is this not obvious? Did I miss some critical detail?
You are missing everything basically.
Normally its actually legally impossible to pursue charges against someone for picking up something you deliberately abandon. Furthermore the act of doing so would in the best case involve spending thousands to tens of thousands of the people's money to pursue such charges. Threatening to burn the people's money and hurt people to keep people from eating food that has been abandoned is absolutely crazy.
Ohh I didn't know they abandoned the bananas deliberately. Yeah that's an important detail
Did you think they were going to gather them up and take them to the store?
No.
Locals are arguing that the Wrecks and Salvage law applies to this, so it seems there is precedent somewhere for them taking the bananas.