Googly Eyes

To Banana Junkies.

 When I’m low energy, I like to cut up my banana on a toasted bagel and eat it with peanut butter. What do you like to do with bananas? And don’t give me the banana bread answer, Marge Simpson.

More reasons I like bananas:

1. Every banana tastes the same (think about it, its true)
2. They are cheaper than apples
3. They are easy to transport and eat on the go or in class .

I learned a lot about the banana, my favorite fast food,  while listening to a sciam podcast which reviewed  Dan Koeppel’s new book “ Banana, the fate of the fruit that changed the world”. I’m going to share the knowledge I picked up because it’s weird.

Bananas aren’t fruits, they are the world’s largest herbs.

A banana is actually a berry.

Americans are most familiar with the Cavendish banana because it is the most commonly sold banana in grocery stores and it is the only species ( 1 in 1000) that is hearty enough to travel great distances.

American supermarkets used to sell a banana called the Gros Michel, which went extinct about 50 years ago. Gros Michels were much richer and creamier than the Cavendish bananas sold today.

Why do bananas go extinct?

Because of a disease called Panama disease, which is an incurable fungus that wipes out crops.

Luckily, the disease hasn’t hit our hemisphere yet but at this rate it will. So, listen, the  banana might not be around when we’re in our 60s (start eating them now!) The ugly red banana at Whole Foods might be its replacement.

Where did the term banana republic come from?

 When the banana plantations are inflected with panama disease farmers move to new land to cultivate it for banana farming.

Guatemala, Honduras, Columbia, Ecuador, Cuba, and Jamaica are all examples of banana republics.

The only way to save the banana?

Genetic engineering.