Bananas: A Parable for Our Times (soon will be extinct and here is why)

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.alternet.org/workplace/120187/bananas%3A_a_parable_for_our_times/

By Johann Hari, Huffington Post. Posted January 17, 2009.

The history of the banana tells us about the corporations that increasingly dominate the world -- and where they are leading us.

Below the headlines about rocketing food prices and rocking governments, there lays a largely unnoticed fact: bananas are dying. The foodstuff, more heavily consumed even than rice or potatoes, has its own form of cancer. It is a fungus called Panama Disease, and it turns bananas brick-red and inedible.

There is no cure. They all die as it spreads, and it spreads quickly. Soon -- in five, 10 or 30 years -- the yellow creamy fruit as we know it will not exist. The story of how the banana rose and fell can be seen a strange parable about the corporations that increasingly dominate the world -- and where they are leading us.

Bananas seem at first like a lush product of nature, but this is a sweet illusion. In their current form, bananas were quite consciously created. Until 150 ago, a vast array of bananas grew in the world's jungles and they were invariably consumed nearby. Some were sweet; some were sour. They were green or purple or yellow.

A corporation called United Fruit took one particular type -- the Gros Michael -- out of the jungle and decided to mass produce it on vast plantations, shipping it on refrigerated boats across the globe. The banana was standardised into one friendly model: yellow and creamy and handy for your lunchbox.

There was an entrepreneurial spark of genius there -- but United Fruit developed a cruel business model to deliver it. As the writer Dan Koeppel explains in his brilliant history Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World, it worked like this. Find a poor, weak country. Make sure the government will serve your interests. If it won't, topple it and replace it with one that will.

Burn down its rainforests and build banana plantations. Make the locals dependent on you. Crush any flicker of trade unionism. Then, alas, you may have to watch as the banana fields die from the strange disease that stalks bananas across the globe. If this happens, dump tons of chemicals on them to see if it makes a difference. If that doesn't work, move on to the next country. Begin again.

FULL 2 page story at link.

[XemaSab]

1. Something to "Muse" on

n/t

[Warpy]

2. Fortunately, other varieties have survived

and are being tended in gardens throughout Central America. From time to time, I've been lucky enough to find red, purple, and golden bananas in health food and specialty markets. Fingerling bananas I've found are incredibly sweet, just a low fruit to skin ratio.

Gros Michael bananas in the 50s were sweet and lovely. Cavendish bananas weren't nearly as good but were serviceable. I still prefer the heirloom bananas to Cavendish when I can find them.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

6. If growers have any sense, they will start growing hybrids

The dangers of genetic uniformity...

[struggle4progress]

14. The bananas most of us eat are seedless mutants that are propagated by

cutting of rhizomes and replanting. No breeding of such stock is possible. The wild bananas, that actually have seeds and therefore could be hybridized, tend to have many large hard seeds, which makes eating them somewhat difficult

[mopinko]

12. those little bananas

are around here in the mercados, and the small fruit markets. people call them ninos (with an nya). you can also get plantains any time.
i suspect the old bananas will come out of the woodwork once the plantations are dead. don't think that would have been the story 20 years ago, before which i don't recall ever hearing the word heirloom applied to fruit. probably be some disruptions in the supply, tho. probably ugly.

[Mojorabbit]

17. I grow four varieties

of bananas in my back yard.

[truedelphi]

19. I've bought the same. Farmer's Markets have them

And it's a kick seeing the fruit in differrent colors.

But it is a parable for any mono-crop (think GMO's)

Across my desk over the past five years, over two dozen accounts of how the Big Corporations are dissovlibng the heirloom seed caches have shown up. The example that stands out is how when Hartz Mountain (Of parakeet and parrot seed fame) was purchased by one of the big Agro firms, the acquiring firm incinerated the heirloom seed base.

Can't allow for any competition with the GMO crops!

[underpants]

3. Interesting

I am sure you have seen "Happiness Machines" and Edward Bernays's influence in Central America to protect United Fruit

This reminds me of the American oil companies. It has always amazed me that they didn't consume all the alternative energy ideas and profit off of them while still prolonging the oil money. They seem to just devote themselves to their one product. I never understood that.


Great read. The Cavendish-I can drop that one (with the Gros Michael) and really look like I know what I am talking about.

[underpants]

7. Let me add-this sounds like a stereotypical drug dealer

Don't get me wrong I LOVE bananas-as a runner they are my morning fuel plus they are delicious

but this sounds like a drug dealer who gets you hooked on the good stuff (Gros Michael) and then switches you to another variety (Cavendish) and you don't notice after the third "dose" or so

[Confusious]

4. The same thing could happen to apples also

At the turn of the century, farmers grew 200+ varieties, now its 10 or less. Greedy, stupid corporations. Stupid consumers.

on edit: I should jut have a sig that says " I can't spell "

[ColbertWatcher]

10. Not being able to spell is understood around these parts! Welcome to DU! n/t

[muriel_volestrangler]

13. Not in such a bad shape as bananas

There are significant variations around the world; the British National Fruit Collection has 3500 varieties; and 10 is still a lot more diverse than 1.

[Mike 03]

5. Another excellent post by Omaha Steve. Really sad, but this is

what we face.

K and R.

[ColbertWatcher]

9. Sad and shocking.

Another species done in by unregulated capitalism.

[reggie the dog]

8. They actually tried to outlaw our bananas here in France

we grow non standard bananas all over France (our islands and tropical places anyway). They have excellent short bananas on Réunion island. My in laws brought us them for a christmas present as they live there and came to visit us. The EU wanted to outlaw them because, get this, the EU tried to outlaw all fruits and vegetables that did not meet certain criteriea for shape, size, and color. the EU's highest court overturned the ruling in the last month or so. They tried to out law our small bananas. They tried to outlaw our ancient tomatoes, very sweet but brown, or green, or orange, or red, or a swirl of colors. The open air markets still sold the products, and local cops did not stop us from eating as we have for centuries, luckily so. Luckily for us local farmers risked getting busted to grow them. I know someone who got busted, for growing very sweet, excellent tomatoes that were not of uniform size and color. The EU's high court ruled that banning such food was in violation of some charter so their plot to protect corporate uniforty has been foiled for the moment, but what will their next caper be... tune in next time on "the raping of the world" brought to you by capitalist whores around the globe.....

[charlie]

15. We do the same dumbassery over here

There's a guy in Florida who grows a strain of tomatoes he calls Ugly Ripes. Unlike the pink rubber balls sold in most US markets, these taste like real ripened tomatoes. Customers love them. But, as the name says, they're misshapen, scarred, and don't have uniform color. So... because they don't meet Florida standards for shape and color and could therefore "hurt" the industry's reputation, he's been prohibited from exporting them to other states. Some years he's had to dump tens of thousands of pounds of these tomatoes grown in anticipation of the quality board relenting on the ban. Idiocy.

[bananas]

11. and I've been thinking of changing my user name, too. nt

[riderinthestorm]

16. There's some very weird parallels between United Fruit and Central America, and Standard Oil and ME

countries.

The business models are startling and destructive.

Thanks for the interesting article. K and R.

[Joe Chi Minh]

21. They should be nationalised as "eminent domain". That's all nationalisation is.

[Hannah Bell]

18. The idea behind all of the stories like this - down to GMOs & the Icelandic seed bank

(sponsored by Gates Foundation, which is in bed with Monsanto) - is ownership & control of the food supply.

[formercia]

20. The human monoculture that Junior represents

is going the same way as that banana.


Here's to the bananas black

and every shade of brown

turning the World Mocha.