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Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World Paperback – December 30, 2008

by Dan Koeppel (Author)

151 customer reviews

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In the vein of Mark Kurlansky's bestselling Salt and Cod, a gripping chronicle of the myth, mystery, and uncertain fate of the world’s most popular fruit

In this fascinating and surprising exploration of the banana’s history, cultural significance, and endangered future, award-winning journalist Dan Koeppel gives readers plenty of food for thought. Fast-paced and highly entertaining, Banana takes us from jungle to supermarket, from corporate boardrooms to kitchen tables around the world. We begin in the Garden of Eden—examining scholars’ belief that Eve’s “apple” was actually a banana— and travel to early-twentieth-century Central America, where aptly named “banana republics” rose and fell over the crop, while the companies now known as Chiquita and Dole conquered the marketplace. Koeppel then chronicles the banana’s path to the present, ultimately—and most alarmingly—taking us to banana plantations across the globe that are being destroyed by a fast-moving blight, with no cure in sight—and to the high-tech labs where new bananas are literally being built in test tubes, in a race to save the world’s most beloved fruit.

Read Dan Koeppel's posts on the Penguin Blog.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

“Required reading.”—New York Post

“Ambitious in scope… both fascinating and disturbing... I’ll never walk through the produce aisle the same way again… [Banana] is at once a political and economic treatise, a scientific explication, and a cultural history.”—The Boston Globe

“Clear, engaging… admirable… part historical narrative and part pop-science adventure.”—San Francisco Chronicle

“[A] brilliant history.”—Seattle Post-Intelligencer

“A fascinating and surprising history of our most ubiquitous fruit.”—Edward Humes, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Monkey Girl and Mississippi Mad

“The history of oil has nothing on that of the yellow fruit.”—Salon.com

About the Author

Dan Koeppel, a 2011 James Beard Award winner, is a science and nature writer who has written for National Geographic, Outside, Scientific American, Wired, and other national publications. He has discussed bananas on NPR’s Fresh Air and Science Friday.

Product details

Paperback: 304 pages
Publisher: Plume; Reprint edition (December 30, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 9780452290082
ISBN-13: 978-0452290082
ASIN: 0452290082
Product Dimensions: 5.3 x 0.6 x 8 inches
Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 151 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #76,391 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #14 in Books > Science & Math > Agricultural Sciences > History
- #19 in Books > Science & Math > Agricultural Sciences > Crop Science
- #45 in Books > Business & Money > Industries > Agriculture

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David S. Saunders

More information on the banana than you can shake a banana-shaped stick at

April 12, 2016

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I read some articles recently about the potential extinction of the banana and I went to get a better understanding of what is really going on. After reading this book, I know more about the banana, it's many varieties, and the blight of Panama disease that affects this food around the globe. I now know that a banana is technically an herb and that the ubiquitous Cavendish banana outsells every variety of apple and orange combined. Banana cultivation and trade has also had a significant impact on world history. I learned about all of that and more in this well-written, easy read of a book. Mission accomplished.

5 people found this helpful

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Kindle Customer

Such a Surprise Page Turner!

October 2, 2018

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I was reading a travel book on the Caribbean, and this book was mentioned as suggested reading. I was intrigued and went ahead and put it on my Kindle. Who knew that I would be so fascinated by bananas? Dan Koeppel writes to an average reader, not a researcher, and this is what makes the book so good. I was able to understand the history and importance of the banana quite easily, and Mr. Koeppel wrote it in such a casual way that it drew me in from beginning to end. As someone who had no previous knowledge of the history of bananas, I learned so much and would highly recommend this book to anyone who loves the fruit. This was such a great read. Five stars for sure.

Comment

Yes We Have No Bananas Today

May 12, 2013

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Dan Koeppel has written an informative fast-paced book detailing the rise and fall of the global banana industry, bringing us along over decades of conflict over land ownership, labor's share of profits, rights of owners of capital, property rights, and self-governance. We start at the very beginning since some believe that the Garden of Eden was the place to grow bananas and not apples. Bananas were transformed in the 19th century from a local fruit to a global market by some adventurous, ruthless, and clever entrepreneurs who overcame issues of distance and spoiling to put cheap bananas in every grocery store in the US. Today the descendants of these pioneering plantation managers, railroad tycoons, and shipping magnates run Dole and Chiquita and still supply us with bananas.

Any venture this large and profitable will undoubtedly lead to arguments over the division of profits. Central American politicians and farm workers were not in agreement with the share taken by Chiquita. The international banana companies (Chiquita had eliminated most of its competition through punitive trade wars and acquisition) felt their property rights, capital, and technology were at risk. In Honduras, Guatemala, and Ecuador this became a real fight in most cases as politicians brought in the military and covert forces to figure it all out.

The other interesting sections here deal with the inherent difficulties in growing and breeding bananas as they are seedless (we would not care to eat them as much otherwise) and sexless (they dont reproduce as much as grow into an adjacent plant). The first bananas to be globally commercialized were the Gros Michael, which ultimately was replaced by today's Cavendish. The Gros Michael disappeared due to Panama disease and other ailments despite the industry's efforts which included endless replanting, field flooding, and application of enough chemicals to turn workers blue.

For many years various researchers have worked on the next generation banana, as the Cavendish itself is subject to the same diseases that ultimately did in the Gros Michael. The Cavendish was selected as it was less suspectible but Keoppel claims its days are numbered as well. Only in certain especially forelorn sections of impoverished Africa (such as Uganda where the economy is banana based) are genetically modified bananas grown. Those of us in the west may ultimately need to eat GM bananas or no bananas.

This is a good informative book for both the general audience and the trade. Koeppel is an experienced writer who knows how to break down concepts like how bananas propogate and how diseases spread. He is especially talented at tying in the historical and political content. His evidence to support the impending demise of the Cavendish hypothesis is a bit weak. His bias against big powerful industry shows at times but that is probabaly healthy.

4 people found this helpful

Comment

Very informative about the current issues regarding bananas

May 4, 2018

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Overall, I enjoyed this book. It is a very informative book that gave a very thorough history of the banana. I learned a lot of new facts about bananas that I did not know beforehand and it opened my eyes to what is currently going on with bananas. The book was also very easy to understand and Dan Koeppel was able to convey all of his thoughts and information effectively to his audience. All of the scientific concepts and the historical events that were mentioned were understandable to those without a lot of scientific or historical background. This book also addressed important topics that are discussed today in regards to agriculture, such as genetic modification and GMOs. I really appreciated this because he brought up common misconceptions and fears that the general public has regarding GMOs. He cleared up these misunderstandings and explained in pretty simple terms the actual process of genetically modifying plants. One aspect of the book that I was not a personal fan of was how in depth he went with the history of the banana. While I do agree that the history is an extremely important part of learning about bananas, I think the extreme emphasis on it was a little unnecessary. I would definitely recommend this book to others because it is really informative and easy to read and understand for those well versed in science and history.

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