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Business Management Book Store > Business Management books beginning with B
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Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World |
Author: Dan Koeppel
Published: 2007-12-27 |
List price: $23.95
Our price: $16.29
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As of: January 07th, 2009 10:41:43 PM
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Customer comments on this selection.
 Bunchy Top, Black Sigatoko, Race 4, and Xanthomonas Wilt
"Is that a banana in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?" - Mae West
Well, perhaps Mae didn't put it exactly like that, but this is a book about bananas not guns, so I had to improvise freely.
BANANA by Dan Koeppel is perhaps everything you wanted to know about the herb - yes, herb - and then some. It traces the migration of the human cultivation and mass consumption of the fruit from its origin in Southeast Asia eastward and westward around the globe until both flows met in the Americas. Most of the narrative concerns the international political intrigues and social injustices committed by the two great banana monopolies, Chiquita - formerly Boston Fruit, then United Fruit, then United Brands - and Dole - formerly Standard Fruit. (Yes, there are other sellers, e.g. Del Monte and Fyffes, but they get only scant mention.) Much of the remainder of the text is devoted to the depredations of various plant diseases - Bunchy Top Disease, Black Sigatoko, Race 4, Banana Xanthomonas Wilt - that threaten the very existence of the current mass-marketed banana, the Cavendish, just as such plagues wiped out its predecessor, the Gros Michel, by the early 1960s. The author emphasizes the point that development of disease-resistant plants is particularly hindered by the sexless, i.e. seedless, nature of most mass-cultivated bananas and the Cavendish in particular.
BANANA contains only a small number of widely scattered black and white photos which, considering the importance of the banana as a mandatory barrier against starvation in much of the Third World, perhaps does the subject matter an injustice.
For the reader so inclined, BANANA, like Salt: A World History, PURE KETCHUP PB, and Robbing the Bees: A Biography of Honey--The Sweet Liquid Gold that Seduced the World, is an engaging and erudite, though slightly rambling, survey of an esoteric culinary subject. I'll never again look at the banana display in my local supermarket, or the little stickers on the individual fruits, in the same way. And during my next infrequent visit to the gourmet/organic food seller known colloquially as "Whole Paycheck", I'll make a point of reconnoitering the produce section for rarely-seen alternatives to the Cavendish, such as the Lacatan, and perhaps splurge.
(Note: This review is of the hardcover edition.)
 Crazy about Banana
I decided to read this book after hearing about it on NPR. I just had to know more about how Americas favorite fruit had control over much of the worlds great powers. Its awesome. I love all food and want to know as much about it as I can. I sure know a lot more about Bananas than I used to. I also took something away from this book that I didn't expect. I learned more geography and science from this book than I did in highschool, though I must say I wasn't the best of students. It proved to me that geography and science can be very interesting if they are put into a form that you understand. LOVE THE BANANA!
Banana Review
I enjoyed it very much, but I tend to really like agricultural related material. The history of the companies were the highlights for me.
 A Rambling, Poorly Written Novel
Like many others here, I purchased this book because of its exposure on Public Radio. Based on what I'd heard I was hoping for an informative and engaging book. Sadly, I was disappointed on both counts. This is a rambling history of the banana intermixed with very poorly described science. I'm sure there is a fascinating story to be told about the sordid history of United Fruit and the future of the banana. This isn't it.
The author relies heavily on ridiculous hyperbole (The banana is nearly extinct; Oh I mean it may face extinction in 5, 10, or 20 years; Oh I mean there are a number of maladies that affect the most popular variety of banana). These short hyperbolic sections are padded out by long, poorly written chapters tracing the history of the banana and focus primarily on the misdeeds of United Fruit. There is just not enough compelling history nor enough detailed science to make a novel here. I don't know how this made it past an editor (it could lose 100 pages easily), but in any case this book is not worth your time.
Mangu de Platano
I am deeply grateful to Koeppel for the tribute he paid to Phil Rowe, the United Brands banana/plantain breeder in Honduras who died in 2001. Koeppel never met him but obviously captured a strong sense of who Phil was and his important contribution to world food security. I met Phil Rowe in 1981 in Tela Honduras and spent the day enthralled listening and learning about challenges to the World banana/plantain crop and Phil's efforts to overcome the challenges to successful banana/plantain breeding.
Koeppel's book emphasizes dessert banana issues. However, the World primarily relies on bananas and plantains as a vegetable crop. In the Dominican Republic they eat cooked green plantains 3 times a day and prefer it to potatoes. Next time you are in New York stop by a Dominican restaraunt and try mangu de platano for breakfast or fresh tostones hot off of the skillet. For those of you that have lived or visited Panama or Colombia, tostones are called patacones.
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