The Fruit Hunters
A Story of Nature, Adventure, Commerce, and Obsession
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Narrated by:
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Stephen Hoye
About this listen
Listeners will discover why it is that, although countless exotic fruits exist in nature, only several dozen varieties are available in supermarkets. Gollner explores the political machinations of multinational fruit corporations, exposing the hidden alliances between agribusiness and government and what that means for public health. He traces the life of mass-produced fruits - how they are created, grown, and marketed - and he explores the underworld of fruits that are inaccessible, ignored, and even forbidden in the Western world.
Gollner draws listeners into a Willy Wonka-like world with mangoes that taste like piña coladas, orange cloudberries, peanut butter fruits, and the miracle fruit that turns everything sour sweet, making lemons taste like lemonade.
Peopled with a varied and bizarre cast of characters - from smugglers to explorers to inventors - this extraordinary book unveils the hidden universe of fruit.
©2008 9165–2610 Quebec, Inc. (P)2008 TantorListeners also enjoyed...
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Story
The Brewer's Tale is a beer-filled journey into the past: the story of brewers gone by and one brave writer's quest to bring them - and their ancient, forgotten beers - back to life, one taste at a time. This is the story of the world according to beer, a toast to flavors born of necessity and place - in Belgian monasteries, rundown farmhouses, and the basement nanobrewery next door. So pull up a barstool and raise a glass to 5,000 years of fermented magic.
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Good insights!
- By Michael on 03-08-16
By: William Bostwick
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Farmacology
- Total Health from the Ground Up
- By: Daphne Miller MD
- Narrated by: Sarah Mollo-Christensen
- Length: 8 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Can urban farms reduce neighborhood crime? These may not sound like typical questions for a family physician to consider, but in Farmacology, Daphne Miller, MD, ventures out of her medical office and travels to seven innovative family farms around the country on a quest to discover the hidden connections between how we care for our bodies and how we grow our food. Miller also seeks out the perspectives of noted biomedical scientists and artfully weaves in their research, along with stories from her own practice. Farmacology offers a profound new approach to healing.
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Crystals and all - great book
- By Topherwayne on 02-22-20
By: Daphne Miller MD
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Super Sushi Ramen Express
- One Family's Journey Through the Belly of Japan
- By: Michael Booth
- Narrated by: Ralph Lister
- Length: 10 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Japan is arguably the preeminent food nation on earth, a Mecca for the world's greatest chefs, with more Michelin stars than any other country. The Japanese go to extraordinary lengths and expense to eat food that is marked both by its exquisite preparation and exotic content. Their creativity, dedication, and courage in the face of dishes such as cod sperm and octopus ice cream is only now beginning to be fully appreciated in the sushi and ramen-saturated West.
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Interesting material that's well-narrated
- By John S. on 11-09-16
By: Michael Booth
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Hippie Food
- How Back-to-the-Landers, Longhairs, and Revolutionaries Changed the Way We Eat
- By: Jonathan Kauffman
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 9 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Food writer Jonathan Kauffman journeys back more than half a century - to the 1960s and 1970s - to tell the story of how a coterie of unusual men and women embraced an alternative lifestyle that would ultimately change how modern Americans eat. Impeccably researched, Hippie Food chronicles how the longhairs, revolutionaries, and back-to-the-landers rejected the square establishment of President Richard Nixon's America and turned to a more idealistic and wholesome communal way of life and food.
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If you grew up eating health food you'll love it
- By Susie Wyshak on 05-09-18
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The Dragon Behind the Glass
- A True Story of Power, Obsession, and the World's Most Coveted Fish
- By: Emily Voigt
- Narrated by: Xe Sands
- Length: 7 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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A young man is murdered for his prized pet fish. An Asian tycoon buys a single specimen for $150,000. Meanwhile, a pet detective chases smugglers through the streets of New York. Delving into an outlandish realm of obsession, paranoia, and criminality, The Dragon Behind the Glass tells the story of a fish like none other: a powerful predator dating to the age of the dinosaurs.
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A "must read" for all fish professionals.
- By Fishgen on 06-26-16
By: Emily Voigt
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The Book of General Ignorance
- By: John Mitchinson, John Lloyd
- Narrated by: uncredited
- Length: 4 hrs and 20 mins
- Abridged
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Misconceptions, misunderstandings, and flawed facts finally get the heave-ho in this humorous, downright humiliating book of reeducation based on the phenomenal British best seller. Challenging what most of us assume to be verifiable truths in areas like history, literature, science, nature, and more, The Book of General Ignorance is a witty “gotcha” compendium of how little we actually know about anything. It’ll have you scratching your head wondering why we even bother to go to school.
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Interesting.
- By A. Hawkbird on 12-07-08
By: John Mitchinson, and others
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Farmageddon
- The True Cost of Cheap Meat
- By: Philip Lymbery, Isabel Oakeshott
- Narrated by: Julian Elfer
- Length: 13 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Farm animals have been disappearing from our fields as the production of food has become a global industry. We no longer know for certain what is entering the food chain and what we are eating - as the UK horsemeat scandal demonstrated. We are reaching a tipping point as the farming revolution threatens our countryside, health, and the quality of our food wherever we live in the world.
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Excellent insight of industrial farming
- By Grazyna on 04-19-14
By: Philip Lymbery, and others
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Meathooked
- The History and Science of Our 2.5-Million-Year Obsession with Meat
- By: Marta Zaraska
- Narrated by: Emily Durante
- Length: 8 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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One of the great science and health revelations of our time is the danger posed by meat-eating. Every day, it seems, we are warned about the harm producing and consuming meat can do to the environment and our bodies. Many of us have tried to limit how much meat we consume, and many of us have tried to give it up altogether. But it is not easy to resist the smoky, cured, barbecued, and fried delights that tempt us.
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A very interesting book on why we crave meat.
- By Amazon Customer on 05-23-16
By: Marta Zaraska
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For All the Tea in China
- How England Stole the World's Favorite Drink and Changed History
- By: Sarah Rose
- Narrated by: Sarah Rose
- Length: 7 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1848, the British East India Company, having lost its monopoly on the tea trade, engaged Robert Fortune, a Scottish gardener, botanist, and plant hunter, to make a clandestine trip into the interior of China - territory forbidden to foreigners - to steal the closely guarded secrets of tea horticulture and manufacturing. For All the Tea in China is the remarkable account of Fortune's journeys into China - a thrilling narrative that combines history, geography, botany, natural science, and old-fashioned adventure.
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Like Fingernails on a Chalkboard
- By S. Mersereau on 05-28-10
By: Sarah Rose
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Farm City
- The Education of an Urban Farmer
- By: Novella Carpenter
- Narrated by: Karen White
- Length: 9 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Novella Carpenter loves cities - the culture, the crowds, the energy. At the same time, she can't shake the fact that she is the daughter of two back-to-the-land hippies who taught her to love nature and eat vegetables. Ambivalent about repeating her parents' disastrous mistakes, yet drawn to the idea of backyard self-sufficiency, Carpenter decided that it might be possible to have it both ways.
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Hmmm.
- By THoward on 09-30-09
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Why Did the Chicken Cross the World?
- The Epic Saga of the Bird That Powers Civilization
- By: Andrew Lawler
- Narrated by: Dennis Holland
- Length: 10 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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From ancient empires to modern economics, veteran journalist Andrew Lawler delivers a sweeping history of the animal that has been most crucial to the spread of civilization across the globe: the chicken. Queen Victoria was obsessed with it. Socrates' last words were about it. Charles Darwin and Louis Pasteur made their scientific breakthroughs using it. Catholic popes, African shamans, Chinese philosophers, and Muslim mystics praised it.
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Never imagined the volume of bird trivia
- By Neuron on 11-04-18
By: Andrew Lawler
What listeners say about The Fruit Hunters
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
- Henry Scalfo
- 07-16-08
Interesting world...
Stephen Hoyes narration style is absolutely perfect for this book. Top notch!!
If you enjoyed; Animal Vegetable, Miracle and even Michael Pollens books, then you will find this enjoyable and eye opening as well. Did you ever wondered why the peaches, plums, apples etc...in your supermarket taste more like dry tennis balls than the sweet nectary goodness you expect?
What also makes this book enjoyable are the many interesting and very quirky characters that Adam meets along the way as well as the historical tidbits about fruit. I really enjoyed this book and highly recommend it to foodies. Its a fun and enlightening read (listen).
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12 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Carolyn
- 09-14-08
exotic explorers
This is a journey all over the world, sampling rare (to Americans) fruit, and meeting the fruit lovers who sometimes seem as exotic and rare and the fruit they collect. Their passion and sacrifice are infectious. The author is quite fond of lists, but each factoid is more entertaining than the next, and he generously provides supplemental information on his web site and on YouTube. The first half of the book revolves around history, botany and travel. The second half is more investigative. Highly entertaining.
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7 people found this helpful
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- Marj
- 07-31-12
unexpected adventure
I bought this book with the idea it would put me to sleep, instead I found a wonderful adventure that I would have loved to gone on. The author touched a cord with me in the quirky quest of fruit hunting.
But Gollner or his editor should do some pruning on his next book. I almost didn't make it through the long opening section.
Thank you for the armchair trip into a very interesting world.
Marj
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall
- Roy
- 02-20-09
Food for Thought
This little book was read well and covered a topic that I had not thought much about - fruit and those who are out to find the best. It revealed to me the many varieties of fruit, the multitude of flavors that can result from eating, the business of selling fruit and all sorts of things. Apples, grapes, and what else. This is a sweet listen.
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Overall
- andrew
- 03-07-11
Delicious
This book is well narrated, very interesting, entertaining and will make your mouth water. Some of the politics will make you angry as well. I bought a paper copy too because there are so many fruits to go trying to find. Works on several levels.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall
- Laurel A. Beyer
- 09-22-09
Too much info!
As a fruit lover, I was disappointed by this audiobook. Perhaps it is better in the written word. When I came to the break between parts, I moaned out loud that there was still another half to go. There are so many facts crammed into this book that it seems almost overwhelming with the non-stop facts about fruits. I wish I had read the Amazon.com reviews before listening. Out of hundreds of audiobooks that I have listened to, this will be perhaps only the second that I simply cannot finish. I will come back to it later to give it another chance.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall
- NOLAHunter
- 04-02-11
Couldn't finish it
First audiobook I simply couldn't finish. Way too much detail and not enough of it was interesting detail. Just piles and piles of minutiae and not a lot to tie them together in a meaningful and interesting way. Normally I appreciate details and prefer too much information rather than too little however, without a compelling story the details don't illuminate and excite they just become tedious.
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1 person found this helpful