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.
- ISBN10 0452290082
- ISBN13 9780452290082
- Publish Date 30 December 2008 (first published 27 December 2007)
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country US
- Publisher Penguin Putnam Inc
- Imprint New American Library
- Format Paperback (US Trade)
- Pages 304
- Language English
- URL https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780452290082