🍌🍌🍌Bananas: Slip sliding away

No other fruit is as major as the banana. Tomorrow’s fruit bowls, though, may have to do without the sweet, yellow staple. An estimated 85% of all the cultivated bananas in the world are vulnerable to a devastating Panama fungus disease, Tropical Race 4 (TR4), and [it’s everywhere that bananas are grown for export](. Banana agriculture itself is partly to blame. There are over 1,000 different varieties of bananas in hues that range from pink to red to brown, some sweet and mushy, some starchy and sour, but virtually every export banana is the long, yellow Cavendish. Its resistance to a different strain of the Panama disease, Tropical Race 1 (TR1) is what made it ubiquitous in the first place, and now history is repeating. Let’s peel back the layers. 🐦 [Tweet this!]( 🌐 [View this email on the web]( [Quartz Obsession] Bananas November 12, 2019 Yes! We have no bananas --------------------------------------------------------------- No other fruit is as major as the banana. Tomorrow’s fruit bowls, though, may have to do without the sweet, yellow staple. An estimated 85% of all the cultivated bananas in the world are vulnerable to a devastating Panama fungus disease, Tropical Race 4 (TR4), and [it’s everywhere that bananas are grown for export](. Banana agriculture itself is partly to blame. There are over 1,000 different varieties of bananas in hues that range from pink to red to brown, some sweet and mushy, some starchy and sour, but virtually every export banana is the long, yellow Cavendish. Its resistance to a different strain of the Panama disease, Tropical Race 1 (TR1) is what made it ubiquitous in the first place, and now history is repeating. Let’s peel back the layers. 🐦 [Tweet this!]( 🌐 [View this email on the web]( by the digits [473:]( Bananas in the largest bunch ever harvested [60%:]( Genetic similarity between a human and a banana [5.6 million:]( Hectares of land dedicated to banana production globally [99%:]( Cavendish bananas’ share of the export market [$2.8 billion:]( US imports of bananas in 2018 [$8 billion:]( Global export market for bananas [15%:]( Share of bananas that are exported (the rest are consumed as staples in local markets) [10 million:]( Bananas you’d need to eat at once to die from radiation poisoning [425 mg:]( Potassium in a medium banana [590 yen ($5.40):]( Price of a single premium Gokusen banana in Japan [$1,700:]( Price of a Prada banana bowling shirt AP Photo/Fernando Vergara) origin story Top banana --------------------------------------------------------------- The Cavendish may rule produce departments now, but [the Gros Michel]( or Big Mike, was the original banana introduced to the US in the 1880s by Lorenzo Dow Baker. It was hardy, sweet, and flavorful, and became the singular crop on large commercial plantations throughout Central America. Planted entirely with Gros Michels, these monocultures were highly vulnerable to disease, and in the 1890s a deadly soil-borne fungus called Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. Cubense, or Panama disease, started to attack bananas in Central America. Over the next 50 years, TR1 would wipe out every Gros Michel plantation in the region, rendering the standard banana in the US commercially extinct by the 1950s. Rather than diversifying, banana companies replanted in the same way with a new variety. Although somewhat less delicious, and more challenging to ship, the Cavendish proved immune to TR1. Rich in vitamins B6 and C, with high levels of potassium, magnesium, and fiber, it turned out to be a bit bland compared to the Gros Michel, [but it has won some taste tests](. It also required a new packing and shipping system. Where the Gros Michel could be loaded onto ships in bunches, the Cavendish has a [tendency to bruise]( so it is boxed. Special ripening rooms and doses of ethylene gas are required before the [banana makes its way to the stores](. this one weird trick! Fake banana flavor --------------------------------------------------------------- Legend goes that banana flavoring was originally based on the Gros Michel. But according to [Chris Baraniuk at the BBC]( there’s very little evidence for that theory. The taste in banana-flavored anything comes from isoamyl acetate, a chemical compound that occurs naturally in the banana—which the Gros Michel [does have more of]( than the Cavendish, and many other varieties of banana. Why is the artificial flavor so different from the real, fresh bananas then? While the chemistry captures its essence, it doesn’t capture its variety, which comes from ripeness, texture, and other ever-changing factors. brief history [327 BC:]( Alexander the Great enjoys bananas in India, and brings them back to Greece, where they spread through Africa and Europe. [1860:]( Banana flavoring beats mass-market bananas to the US by nearly a decade. [1870:]( Lorenzo Dow Baker imports the first bananas to the US. [1876:]( Bananas appear at the Centennial Exhibition of Philadelphia, and for many visitors, it is their first opportunity to try the yellow fruit. [1899:]( United Fruit Company is formed in a merger of two Boston-based banana companies. [1904:]( David Strickler invents the banana split in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. [1909:]( St. Louis outlaws throwing banana peels in public. [1944:]( Miss Chiquita, drawn by cartoonist Dik Browne, is introduced as part of the marketing campaign to convince Americans to eat Cavendish bananas. [1954:]( Guatemala’s president Jacobo Arbenz is overthrown in a US-and-United-Fruit-Company-backed coup that plunges the country into violence and unrest. [1956:]( Harry Belafonte’s Calypso, featuring the hit earworm “Day-O (The Banana Boat Song),” becomes the first full-length LP to exceed one million sales. [1980s:]( TR4 appears in Taiwan, where it destroys 70% of the Cavendish plantations. [2012:]( The banana genome is sequenced. [2016:]( China passes a law banning people from seductively eating bananas on live streams. [2019:]( TR4 is confirmed in Colombia. watch this! The banana massacre --------------------------------------------------------------- The history of the banana and the history of Latin America are deeply intertwined. For much of the 20th century, United Fruit Company, which is now Chiquita, was more powerful than many nation-states, controlling land, means of production, and transportation systems. From Colombia to Guatemala, American companies would contract with the government to build infrastructure like railroads and ports in exchange for land, where they would plant bananas. The transportation improvements were largely useless for most citizens, instead forming a vertically integrated system controlled at every level by the banana barons. This made banana prices incredibly low for the export market, and gave the fruit companies vast power over local economies and governments, [leading to the term “banana republics]( Workers had few rights, and suffered brutal conditions and low wages. On Dec. 6, 1928, workers in Ciénaga, Colombia gathered on the town’s main square to negotiate an end to a strike against United Fruit, in which they demanded better working conditions. The Colombian Army opened fire on the crowd, killing more than 1,000 people, including women and children. It became known as the Banana Massacre. AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell pop quiz Which novel features a fictionalized version of the Banana Massacre? Hopscotch by Julio CortázarThe Savage Detectives by Roberto BolañoOne Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García MárquezThe Death of Artemio Cruz by Carlos Fuentes Correct. Incorrect. If your inbox doesn’t support this quiz, find the solution at bottom of email. Have a friend who would enjoy our Obsession with Bananas? [ [Forward link to a friend](mailto:?subject=Thought you'd enjoy.&body=Read this Quartz Obsession email – to the email – million-dollar question Is there a future for the banana as we know it? --------------------------------------------------------------- There doesn’t seem to be any way to control TR4, which can be transmitted through planting materials and infested soil particles carried by clothing, vehicles, or water. The fungus infects the plant through the roots, and gets into the vascular tissue. The leaves yellow and the plant essentially rots from within. This strain of the fungus first appeared in Taiwan in the late 1980s and officially breached plantations in Latin America in 2019, which accounts for 25% of world banana production and 80% of the global export market. This time around, there’s no new variety waiting in the wings. Scientists have taken two different approaches to address the coming banana apocalypse. One group is working to cross the Cavendish with other varieties through selective breeding, hoping to marry flavor, hardiness, and disease resistance. The other group is working to [engineer a more disease-resistant banana]( using genetic modification. As TR4 [creeps across Latin America]( banana prices may rise for consumers, and profit margins may fall for large producers. The bigger impact, though, is likely to fall on communities that rely on [bananas as a food staple]( or as a major part of the local economy. fun fact! [Bananas don’t grow on trees](. The trunk is made of tightly overlapping leaves rather than wood, making it [a very large herb](. [Bananas themselves are technically a berry](. Giphy explain it like i'm 5! Banana a-peel --------------------------------------------------------------- Slipping on a banana peel was once considered a real [public hazard](. During the mid-19th century, bananas became a common street food in the US. This often resulted in people tossing the peels into the streets, leading to a proliferation of slimy rot underfoot. By the late 1890s, the banana peel problem was solved by organized fleets of sanitation workers sweeping the streets of the major cities, but the potassium-loaded hazard had become a staple gag on vaudeville stages—according to the [AV Club]( comedian “Sliding” Billy Watson was the self-proclaimed inventor. It’s not just that banana peels got a bad rap, or that bananas are inherently funny; they really are slicker than other produce peels. When pressed, small follicles in the banana skin release [polysaccharide gel]( making the peel extra slippery. take me down this 🐰 hole! According to Mike Berners-Lee, author of [How Bad Are Bananas? The Carbon Footprint of Everything]( bananas have a [good ratio of carbon footprint to nutritional content](. AP Photo/David Zalubowski poll Do you like bananas? [Click here to vote]( Yes!Not my favorite, but they’re convenient.Ugh, toddlers can keep them. 💬 let's talk! In yesterday’s poll about [green burials]( 60% of you said you would prefer a green burial, 30% said cremation, 6% said burial at sea, and 4% want a traditional casket. 📩 Asif wrote in to say, “There was no mention of Muslim burial practice, which in essence is green burial practice. It includes washing the body before being wrapped in a burial shroud.” David wrote “All traditional Jewish burials are without embalming, with at most an all-unfinished-wood casket.” And Alan wrote in to lament that “So many people still are not aware of the Infinity Burial Mushroom suit.” Correction, in yesterday’s email we referred to bodies being “interned.” They are actually “interred,” as several of you pointed out. 🤔 [What did you think of today’s email?](mailto:obsession%2Bfeedback@qz.com?cc=&subject=Thoughts%20about%20bananas&body=) 💡 [What should we obsess over next?](mailto:obsession%2Bideas@qz.com?cc=&subject=Obsess%20over%20this%20next.&body=) [🎲 Show me a random Obsession]( Today’s email was written by [Bárbara Abbês]( edited by [Annaliese Griffin]( and produced by [Tori Smith](. The correct answer to the quiz is One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez. Enjoying the Quartz Obsession? [Send this link]( to a friend! Want to advertise in the Quartz Obsession? 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