Comments on: Death of a Banana

Death of a Banana

cinemafiend — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 10:34:23 -0800

The world loves the banana - they are the world's most popular fruit and the fourth most consumed food on our planet. According to Johann Hari in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, it appears that the variety of bananas loved the world over - the Cavendish - is headed for extinction due to Fusarium oxysporum (Panama disease).

Apparently, this is not the first time that a variety of bananas has gone extinct. Before 1960, the Gros Michel was the world's most popular banana - it was said to have been bigger and tastier than the Cavendish -until Fusarium oxysporum wiped it from the face of the earth. By the way, the U.S. Government used Fusarium oxysporum, as a biological weapon in South America in an attempt to eradicate the coca plant. As you may have gleaned from the articles above, troubled and violent history of the business of bananas (involving the C.I.A.and United Fruit) as well as the future of the seemingly innocuous yellow fruit are explored in David Koeppel's Banana:The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World.

By: mullingitover

mullingitover — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 10:47:10 -0800

By: shmegegge

shmegegge — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 10:53:32 -0800

perhaps we should ensure that cavendish bananas continue to flourish by getting the United States Government to attempt to wipe them out?

By: sciurus

sciurus — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 10:54:42 -0800

Wasn't there an exhaustive post about bananas here recently? Can't find it on search...

By: ericost

ericost — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 10:56:43 -0800

Metafilter's own Dan Koeppel, that is.

By: The Gooch

The Gooch — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 10:58:19 -0800

I've never liked bananas. I don't like to eat anything that in both shape and consistency so closely resembles a turd.

By: sciurus

sciurus — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 11:00:31 -0800

Ahh, that's where I saw it.

By: Burhanistan

Burhanistan — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 11:02:06 -0800

I guess The Gooch doesn't like chocolate ice cream either. I've never seen bananas conflated with poop and I hope to forget that as soon as possible.

By: gurple

gurple — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 11:05:50 -0800

As someone who really, really hates bananas more than any other food (always have, no good reason), I'm struggling to feel sad about the economic implications of this for certain poor countries, while doing a little happy dance that maybe someday I'll never have to smell a banana again.

By: blue_beetle

blue_beetle — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 11:07:43 -0800

Is Peak Banana caused by the Banana cartels? Is the government under the control of Big Banana? Find out tonight, on BNN!

By: Burhanistan

Burhanistan — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 11:09:59 -0800

Clearly, Metafilter has no bananas.

By: delmoi

delmoi — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 11:10:26 -0800

Wow, there is some weird-ass banana hate going on in this thread for some reason. Did anyone think to store samples of that other banana before they went extinct? I'd imagine with modern cloning we'd be able to get it back.

By: Addlepated

Addlepated — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 11:14:55 -0800

Snopes thinks Peak Banana is bunkum.

By: Narual

Narual — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 11:16:43 -0800

there are two primary complaints about GM food... one, that it's just magically bad because we don't know what will happen when we eat it, it's not been tested, etc, etc, etc... and two, that it can threaten species diversity, spread out of control, destroy non-gm food. The second is a moderately valid concern... but edible bananas are seedless, sterile, and don't reproduce or spread on their own. Bring on the GM bananas! Better yet, GM the better-tasting banana varieties that don't ship well so they ship well, and bring them on!

By: 1adam12

1adam12 — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 11:21:54 -0800

That's cool, I prefer red bananas over Cavendish anyway.

By: Nelson

Nelson — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 11:28:15 -0800

I love bananas. There are a zillion varieties of bananas with different flavours, textures. Alas, all we get is the one common yellow banana. Maybe a little variety will help address the monocultural plague?

By: Mitheral

Mitheral — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 11:38:42 -0800

It's typical sloppy reporting, but the Gros Michel isn't extinct, just not commercially cultivated. In fact it may hold the key to developing newer fungus resistant varieties of banana

By: Forktine

Forktine — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 11:43:32 -0800

The FPP incorrectly claims that the Gros Michel has gone extinct. The link given does not say so, and from Wikipedia: The Honduras Foundation for Agricultural Research cultivates several varieties of the Gros Michel. They have succeeded in producing a few seeds by hand-pollinating the flowers with pollen from diploid, seeded bananas. I've eaten bananas that farmers told me were Gros Michels, and they really are good bananas, lovely flavor, big, etc. (It is possible that what I ate were not true Gros Michels, but were similar enough to be called that, I am not a banana researcher and don't know. Basically, any banana on a small-scale banana farm makes the things you get at the grocery store taste like ground up cardboard in comparison.) Here is an interesting piece, with banana researchers giving their response to the New Scientist piece that has sparked a lot of the publicity over the Cavendish's problems; their proposed solution is to go back to conventional crossbreeding, rather than genetic engineering. My guess is that both will be involved in finding new breeds that can be grown on a large scale and can tolerate the rigors of shipping.

By: stbalbach

stbalbach — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 11:43:47 -0800

I read the book, it's short, brisk, interesting. I really hate sub-titles "changed the world" or "the race to.." but stuck with it beyond the front cover. What I took away is what Nelson said is the amazing variety of banana's in the world, the one we all know is among the least tasteful, only because of its shipping properties, you have to go to south climes to experience the variety. And that our grandparents ate a different (better) banana entirely. And that it's really really hard to get a banana seed and takes a lifetime (or more) of work to hyberdize a new variety and that the only real hope lies in genetic manipulation. Clearly, Metafilter has no bananas. He also goes into the history of the "Yes, we have no banana's" craze of the 1920s. Another "fruit book" out now is getting very good reviews The Fruit Hunters: A Story of Nature, Adventure, Commerce, and Obsession

By: mumkin

mumkin — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 11:43:53 -0800

Did anyone think to store samples of that other banana before they went extinct? I'd imagine with modern cloning we'd be able to get it back. I believe I've read/heard that there are still some Gros Michel bananas out there in people's back yards and whatnot. It's not that it's completely extinct, but rather that the plantations all became infected and so switched to the Cavendish. The Gros Michel is commercially extinct. And yes, there are banana genome repositories, which doubtless have Gros Michel in their collection, for all the good it does. Resistance to Panama disease isn't something that cloning alone can do for the beloved Gros Michel.

By: phliar

phliar — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 12:14:27 -0800

The Cavendish may be loved all over the New World, but not elsewhere! My grandfather had a plantation in South India on which he grew -- among other things -- bananas and plantains. There is just no comparison beween the pale imitation you get in supermarkets here with those magical fruits, especially the variety known locally as nenthrangai (romanicization approximate, and I don't know its western name), a large fruit with orange flesh. Yum!!!

By: eritain

eritain — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 12:24:59 -0800

Many samples of banana/plantain tissue from various cultivars/landraces are now held worldwide and indexed by the Musa Germplasm Information System (click MGIS link in sidebar, it's an IP rather than a domain so I'm not linking it directly). I, for one, welcome our new non-Cavendish bananalords. Let a thousand bananas bloom. Not only because the Cavendish is a little too sickly sweet for me, but because maybe if we chose an appropriate variety per region we could keep the plants in better health with fewer chemicals.

By: yhbc

yhbc — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 12:38:31 -0800

Maybe big grocery stores can also stop selling the giant strawberries that look impressive, ship easily, don't bruise, but taste like crap?

By: mitzyjalapeno

mitzyjalapeno — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 12:46:29 -0800

Good call, yhbc. Same request goes for the enormous gala apples with the texture and taste of wet cardboard.

By: quonsar

quonsar — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 13:24:23 -0800

The banana we eat today is not the one your grandparents ate. That one — known as the Gros Michel — was, by all accounts, bigger, tastier, and hardier than the variety we know and love, which is called the Cavendish. The unavailability of the Gros Michel is easily explained: it is virtually extinct. Introduced to our hemisphere in the late 19th century, the Gros Michel was almost immediately hit by a blight that wiped it out by 1960. The Cavendish was adopted at the last minute by the big banana companies — Chiquita and Dole.

By: quonsar

quonsar — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 13:25:53 -0800

Big Banana Is Watching

By: kittyprecious

kittyprecious — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 13:36:47 -0800

Here I was sitting at my desk feeling hungry and sullen as the workday wound down, and this post reminded me I had a delicious banana sitting in my backpack! Thanks, cinemafiend! A++++, WOULD REQUEST FURTHER MAGIC FOOD-REMINDER POSTS ON MEFI.

By: Rhaomi

Rhaomi — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 13:37:50 -0800

I blame the Geostationary Banana Over Texas. It is a Terrible Omen for all bananakind.

By: cinemafiend

cinemafiend — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 13:41:04 -0800

Apologies to soulbarn: Dan Koeppel not David Koeppel as stated in my post. Also, apologies on my hyperbole on the demise of the Gros Michel. I really need to hire an editor and a fact checker before I submit my next post.

By: uandt

uandt — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 14:30:19 -0800

I shurely welcome the bananacolypse. Over here, where I live I call the Average Joe "Swedish Banana". It's because they are all boring, identical, sexless clones. Just like the banana.

By: jewzilla

jewzilla — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 14:33:17 -0800

I ate about five different kinds of bananas on my last trip to Brazil. Almost all were sweeter and more flavorful than the Cavendish, including the ones I was told (aftewards) are not traditionally eaten raw. Bring on the Panama disease!

By: kyrademon

kyrademon — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 15:19:05 -0800

I've become addicted to apple bananas, a small Brazilian variety popular here in Hawaii. I don't think I could go back to Cavendishes - they seem tasteless in comparison.

By: tellurian

tellurian — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 20:29:31 -0800

Dan has been saying this for a while now.

By: TedW

TedW — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 06:11:58 -0800

Gooch, whatever you do, stay far away from this thread.

By: destrius

destrius — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 08:53:39 -0800

Personally I don't fancy the Cavendish that much either; my favourite banana is known as the pisang mas in Malay. Its not as starchy as the Cavendish, and is sweeter in a honey-like way. A cursory Google search shows that there was a trial of this variety of bananas going on in Yorkshire; I've managed to find it for sale at some Asian grocery stores before too. Specifically, a Chinese grocer in Pittsburgh. If you do land your hands on some, don't eat them till at least some black spots appear and its soft to the touch. It tastes so much better when fully ripe.