Because They Have Ap-peal - January 2, 2009

If you’re a typical American, you eat about 27 pounds of them a year. But beware! Bananas are on the road to extinction -- in ten to thirty years, that tasty banana you had for breakfast may no longer exist.

How is this possible? After all, there are over 1,000 varieties of banana that grow in more than 100 countries, and the Cavendish (what you know as the generic "banana") is only one of them -- and is actually looked down upon by many connoisseurs as being bland. 

But, in fact, the Cavendish is a relative newcomer. From 1880 to the 1950s, the banana known to our forefathers was the "Gros Michel" (also known as "Big Mike"). In the 1950s, though, "Big Mike" succumbed to a fungus that virtually wiped out the variety (it can still be found in small quantities on remote plantations). 

Banana growers searched for a replacement and came up with the Cavendish, in spite of the difficulty in transporting it. After much experimentation, researchers determined that if the Cavendish were taken from the tree (where they will not ripen; only a picked banana will do that) and sealed in containers or rooms filled with ethylene gas, the ripening process could be delayed while the fruits made their two-week journey from field to your supermarket.

In their time, those banana growers showed more powers than the ability to retard spoilage; their machinations in the late nineteenth century led to the control and overthrowing of more than one Central or South American government (hence "banana republic"). In fact, that's what inspires our exegesis on bananas today; on this date in 1932, martial law was declared in Honduras to stop a revolt by banana workers fired by the United Fruit Company (known today as Chiquita).

The reason Cavendish bananas are endangered is that they all are genetically identical -- clones of one another that cannot reproduce naturally. Without the help of humans, the Cavendish could not exist -- although that point may be moot if the banana fungus that wiped out the Gros Michel and the Cavendishes of Asia and Australia makes it across the Pacific.

Dedicated banana scientists are working night and day to breed different genetic traits into the Cavendish to ensure its longevity and resistance to the fungus, but if you wake up some morning in the future and are faced with putting apples or grapes on your corn flakes -- well, don’t say we didn’t warn you …

Suggested Sites...

Banana: The Fate of the Fruit that Changed the World - official site for Dan Koeppel's book on the social, political, and gastronomic history of the banana. Popular Science: Can This Fruit Be Saved - details the scientific efforts going into saving the Cavendish. New York Times: Yes, We Will Have No Bananas - well, maybe -- if we play our cards right. Snopes: Will Bananas Be Extinct in Ten Years? - examines the facts and rumors around banana extinction. Bananas, A Storied Fruit with an Uncertain Future - NPR's Terry Gross interviews Koeppel about his book.