
Banana
The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World
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Narrated by:
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Paul Woodson
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By:
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Dan Koeppel
About this listen
To most people a banana is a banana: a simple yellow fruit. Americans eat more bananas than apples and oranges combined. In others parts of the world, bananas are what keep millions of people alive. But for all its ubiquity, the banana is surprisingly mysterious; nobody knows how bananas evolved or exactly where they originated. Rich cultural lore surrounds the fruit: In ancient translations of the Bible, the "apple" consumed by Eve is actually a banana.
But the biggest mystery about the banana today is whether it will survive. A seedless fruit with a unique reproductive system, every banana is a genetic duplicate of the next and therefore susceptible to the same blights. Today's yellow banana, the Cavendish, is increasingly threatened by such a blight, and there's no cure in sight.
Banana combines a pop-science journey around the globe, a fascinating tale of an iconic American business enterprise, and a look into the alternately tragic and hilarious banana subculture (one does exist) - ultimately taking us 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.
©2008 Dan Koeppel (P)2016 TantorListeners also enjoyed...
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Read for an assignment
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very educational
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Total Banana History
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Fascinating!
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Incredible
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From neolithic Kuk Swamp bananas to state-of-the-art GMO bananas, this book covers thousands of years of development of a fruit.
Bananas have a business, history, scientific, economic, and political history. This makes the story of bananas a fascinating to read.
You also great detail and understanding of the challenges to growing and managing the bananas industry. The business is not simple, not cheap, and very politically complicated.
Very Good Book - History, Science, and Economics
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It’s a great and upsetting book
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A story that laments Euro-centrism is Euro-centric
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Yes, it is the 4th most valuable crop in the world, and yes, the Cavendish, by far the most common banana, is in trouble, but the author keeps bringing the same stuff up again and again.
Got about half-way through, and gave up. I almost never give-up on a book. Similar books, micro-histories like ‘The Book on the Bookshelf’, the history of the bookshelf, is fabulous, and the book (title scapes me) On the history of the screwdriver, is a page turner by comparison. ‘The Perfectionistsk the history of Precision, is great. Bananas, not so much.
Boring, Reoetitive
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The story is not compelling
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