Banana: The Fate of the Fruit that Changed the World

Toronto Globe & Mail: a "Hard-nosed journalistic account"

FOOD
The fruits of our labour

by Carol Off

(reviewed with CITRUS: A History, by Pierre Laszlo)

There was a time, not long ago, when most people spent most of their time producing food. The inverse
is now true, at least for those of us in the developed world. Paradoxically, as we move further and further
away from the source of what sustains us, we've become more obsessed with knowing where our food
comes from and under what circumstances it's harvested.

First-ever world banana conference

The world's most important bananas - the ones people subsist on - are grown in Africa. But, sadly, there's been little global attention paid to the plight of the African fruit, which faces disease, loss of diversity, as well as damage due to war and changes in culture and population. Scientists have been unable, for the most part, to obtain either the funding to work on preserving and studying existing African varieties, or work on introducing new banana types to the continent. In October, for the first time, the world's banana experts will gather in Kenya for a conference dedicated to the African banana.

Though most readers of this blog probably won't find reason to attend, the event is historic and important, and I'll be covering it as it approaches - and as it happens, since I plan to attend. The key point, again: the world hasn't woken up to how important - or threatened - bananas are. This is a huge step.

More on the conference here.

LA Times on Banana Museum

Best banana picture ever - from the banana museum's website

Fake memoirist, real novelist, and - best of all - Oprah nemesis James Frey mentions Altadena banana museum; Los Angeles Times uses "banana expert" (me) to confirm that it exists (or existed; it has since moved to Hesperia, in the California high desert.)

About the picture: The proprietor of the museum, Ken Banister, has his shirt open at the belly. He is standing above a "banana club" logo, and next to a pile of bananas. A man who has burst into flames runs in front of them. To Ken's left a child on an adult's shoulders seems to stare in amazement. To the right, two adults laugh. The man closer to Banister seems to be applauding. All the way on the left side of the picture, a man in a pork pie hat and red knee socks, sitting and only half in frame, appears to be indifferent to the spectacle.

What in heck is going on here?

Radio appearance on KPBS San Diego's "These Days"

Host Tom Fudge and I discussed "Banana" for fifteen minutes. He was a little skeptical that this humble fruit really did "change the world!" (He also said the subject matter seemed "powerfully mundane." I think - I hope - I convinced him. Listen here to find out.

An hour of live radio is tough!

..especially when the producers are so well prepared that they've taken all your favorite talking points. WBUR's On-Point radio show put together a really nice show with some really challenging questions, as well as some great audio clips, including a fantastic version of "Yes, We Have No Bananas" sung by Louis Prima. Also interviewed was Adolfo Martinez, director of the Honduran Foundation for Agricultural Investigation, the largest banana research facility in Central America. You can listen to the show, which aired on January 11, here. You can buy the Louis Prima version of the banana song at iTunes (and it is so worth the 99 cents!)

(The show also put together a nice web presentation of banana-related images.)

Vroman's Bookstore blog report on my reading there

On lovely Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena

Thanks, Vroman's, for hosting my reading on January 10 in Pasadena. Here's what the bookstore's blog had to say about the event.

"Last night I stuck around to hear Dan Koeppel read from his new book Bananas: The Fate of the Fruit that Changed the World. Food writing like this -- deeply focused and researched writing on a single subject, moving from the micro to the macro -- has really taken over the publishing world in the past few years. Mark Kurlanksy (Salt, Cod) has made a cottage industry of it, and Michael Pollan's fabulous The Omnivore's Dilemma (a book with a slightly broader scope) continues to appear on Vroman's bestseller list on a weekly basis."

Read more at Vroman's blog.

RADIO: Interviewed on KCRW's "Good Food"

The interview, with host Evan Kleiman, aired Saturday, January 5. Evan called the book "a fabulous read." Thanks, Evan!

The show's web page, with a listening link, is here. Directly download a podcast here.

Ten Questions about the book, answered at Borders online

From an interview I did back in December. Learn about slipping on banana peels, extinction, and fruity folklore here.

Boston Globe says Banana is "compelling," "fascinating," "disturbing."

A really good review by Ralph Ranalli in the Boston Globe, January 3:

"Thanks to Dan Koeppel, I'll never walk through the produce aisle the same way again.
Until I read his new book, "Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World," I had never really wondered why there were myriad varieties of apple - Royal Gala, Granny Smith, Red Delicious, Macoun, McIntosh, etc. - yet just one monolithic, curved sweet yellow fruit labeled simply "bananas." (Plantains don't count; they're green and you have to cook them before you eat them.)

The reason, it turns out, is that the banana as we know it is a worldwide poster child for bio-nondiversity. Known as the Cavendish, the bananas sold in my local supermarket in Watertown are virtual genetic duplicates of the ones sold at my sister's greengrocer in Los Angeles and at food markets in Tokyo, Paris, and Rio de Janeiro. The Cavendish is grown everywhere from Central America to New Guinea to India to the Caribbean to Southeast Asia.

In "Banana," Koeppel, a longtime outdoors and adventure writer, weaves a multifaceted story about how the fruit's unique nature has allowed it to become a worldwide food staple and a geopolitical force that has both shaped and toppled nations."

(complete review after the jump, or read it directly at the Globe here.)

MEDIA MENTION: Quoted in the Lempert Report...

The sponsored blog comes from Phil Lempert, food trends editor for NBC's Today Show. I'm quoted as part of a general banana outlook for 2008. What's most interesting is that it is one of the first mainstream media reports that notes the potential effects banana disease might have on the U.S. grocery business (and, by extension, American shoppers.)

Read the story here.

Already in the second-hand bookshop.

Having used up my contracted allotment of books, I needed a bunch more to send to friends. I can get a special direct deal, but the price - considering the shipping time - isn't so great compared to Amazon. But since I happened to be in New York this week, I popped into what is arguably the world's greatest used bookstore, The Strand (University Place at 12th Street.) There, I found six brand-new copies - all with press releases tucked into them, most likely sold by members of the media after receiving them as review copies.

Not judging, here. But just sayin'!!!

Price: ten bucks each. No, they don't have any left.

The book is out!

Please buy it.

BOOK REVIEW: New York Post reviews "Banana"

The paper I briefly worked for as a teenager says, briefly:

"Everyone knows the banana has appeal. But did you know that the banana is actually a giant berry and most of us eat just one kind, the Cavendish, even though there are more than 1,000 different types? And something called Panama disease is threatening to wipe out our favorite fruit? That Americans eat more bananas per year than apples and oranges combined!? Koeppel travels the globe to investigate, winding up with a surprisingly compelling read about the history, science, politics and future of the banana."