Banana: The Fate of the Fruit that Changed the World

Kirkus Reviews: Banana is a "lively, well-modulated survey"

They're right...the book does have a lot of information crammed into it...

"Nature and science writer Koeppel (To See Every Bird on Earth, 2005) chronicles the banana's history, from early cultivation to modern popularization, and suggests ways to save it from extinction.

Expanded from an article originally published in Popular Science, the narrative covers the fruit's biblical roots (that forbidden treat Eve plucked may not have been an apple), the history of exploitative "banana republics" and the fruit's present precarious state.

Publishers Weekly reviews Banana

This brief - but nice - review appeared in the October 29, 2007 edition of Publishers Weekly. It also serves as a pretty good pocket summary of what the book is about.

"The world’s most humble fruit has caused inordinate damage to nature and man, and Popular Science journalist Koeppel (To See Every Bird on Earth) embarks on an intelligent, chock-a-block sifting through the havoc. Seedless, sexless bananas evolved from a wild inedible fruit first cultivated in Southeast Asia, and was probably the “apple” that got Adam and Eve in trouble in the Garden of Eden.

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Taking bananas too far? You might consider carrying one of these.

The patented "Banana Guard" solves what is, I suppose, a real problem...

It costs seven bucks, and you can read all about it or even order one here if you like. I don't make any money off this, I swear. This information is presented purely as a public service.

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Los Angeles museum gets to keep paintings that accidentally put apples - instead of bananas - in Eden.

The painter got it wrong; the forbidden fruit was a banana. Photos from the Norton Simon Museum.

One of the major misconceptions in theological history is that the apple was the fruit Eve gave Adam, and which subsequently got the couple ejected from Eden. In all likelihood, the placement of the apple is the result of a misinterpretation of scripture by renaissance painters, who took the greek word for apple - "malum" - as a similar-sounding word for "evil" (as in the knowledge of good and evil; that word is the root of our "malice".)

I discuss the linguistic evidence for the banana's true role in Eden in the first chapter of my book; the argument was originally put forth by biblical scholar Schneir Levin in the Winter/Spring 2004 edition of Judaism: A Quarterly Journal of Jewish Life and Thought (read it here.)

Now, the Los Angeles Times says that a dispute over the ownership of one of those paintings has been settled...

Australia was once thought to be protected from the deadliest banana disease. It wasn't.

PANAMA DISEASE - the malady that threatens much of the world's banana crop, and whose advance is the subject of my book - see this fact sheet put out by the Austrailian government, or read this (detailed) article on the fungal blight - was thought to be well-managed, if not stopped cold, in northwest Australia, one of the world's primary commercial banana growing regions. Quarantine measures put in place by local banana growers and agricultural officials were thought to have been both effective - and a model for stopping the disease.

But Panama Disease is impossible to stop once it jumps whatever barriers are erected against it, no matter how strong or well-thought out. That nightmare scenario is now occuring.

The original Popular Science article...

...that this book is based on was published in June, 2005. Here's the beginning, and a link to the rest:

Photo by John B. Carnett, Popular Science magazine

Can This Fruit Be Saved?

The banana as we know it is on a crash course toward extinction. For scientists, the battle to resuscitate the world’s favorite fruit has begun—a race against time that just may be too late to win

“A Banana,” says Juan Fernando Aguilar, “is not just a banana.” The bearded botanist and I are traipsing through one of the world’s most unusual banana plantations, moving down row after row of towering plants and ducking into the shade of broad leaves in an attempt to avoid the Central American midday heat. In an area about the size of a U.S. shopping mall, Aguilar, 46, is growing more than 300 banana varieties. Most commercial growing facilities handle just a single banana type—the one we Americans slice into our morning cereal.

...read more...(direct link to the Popular Science website.)

The Last Bananero

The Bananeros - or "Banana Men" - were the gringos who tamed the Central American jungle and established the banana industry that we know today. They were railroad builders and cowboys, botanists and explorers. In my book, I explain the more-than-problematic history of the bananero culture, and how it led to a century of misery and bloodshed. Here's a first-hand account by one of the few surviving bananeros I met during a visit to Honduras...

THE NIGHT AFTER I VISITED FHIA, THE EXPERIMENTAL BANANA FARM IN HONDURAS, Juan Fernando Aguilar and his wife picked me up in their battered pickup truck; we drove past a few roadside markets – huge bunches of plantain hung, old style, in open-front, tin and plywood shacks – to meet one of the last “United Fruit” men living in Honduras; "George" (I've changed his name) was burly and cheerful, and I instantly recognized a New York accent, surprising him, because he hadn’t been to the city in 50 years. We sat on the patio of tiny restaurant outside of San Pedro Sula, the city closest to Chiquita’s old La Lima compound. We ate fried fish and salad with shredded cabbage and tomatoes, washed down with bottles of the local Salva Vida – “Lifesaver” – beer. I found myself alternately charmed and horrified as he described his four decades working for the big banana company. The tale wasn’t terribly heavy with political awareness. It felt more like I was listening to a nostalgic boy, spinning tales of the Wild West.
“United Fruit came to this country,” he told me, “and brought money and jobs – and all we took out were bananas.”

Banana Museum Saved!

This is a chapter that never made it to the book, about a banana museum in Los Angeles that was about to close. But real life can provide happy endings, even when one never seemed possible...

SOMETIMES, as I worked on this project, I’d find something I’d missed - something obvious - and ended up amazed at the oversight, yet delighted at the discovery. The battle over the banana split was one of those things. Another was the existence of a banana greenhouse two hours south of me, in San Diego. On some afternoons, during the three years I spent researching and writing this book, I’d simply type the word “banana” - with some random modifier, like “folk tales,” or “Florida,” and comb through the results.
A few months before I finished the first draft of my manuscript, I typed in “banana museum.” One sentence stood out amidst the few lines of summary:

“THE BANANA MUSEUM IS FOR SALE.”

About the book...

Is the banana going extinct? To most people, a banana is a banana: yellow and sweet, uniformly sized, always seedless. Americans eat more bananas than apples and oranges combined. In other parts of the world, bananas—like rice, wheat, and corn—are what keep millions of people alive.