Banana
The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World
By
Dan Koeppel
Dan Koeppel writes an intriguing book outlining the “world” impacts and potential fate of the “diminutive” banana. After you read this book, you’ll never look at a banana (the world’s first pre-wrapped fast food) the same again.
Did you know the banana was responsible for:
1 a major shift in civilization in 5,000 BC
2 the beginning of the “fruit industry” as we know it today
3 the building of the first railroads in Costa Rica, Panama, Columbia, Honduras and Ecuador
4 the first Caribbean cruises
5 today’s agricultural distribution techniques
6 the first ships with built in refrigeration
7 a governmental collapse in Honduras in 1910
8 U.S. invasion of Honduras in 1912
9 the closing of the Panama Canal in 1925
10 the formation of guerrilla squads which plague Columbia today
11 the Columbia massacre of 1929
12 a CIA backed coup in Guatemala in 1953, witnessed by “Che” Guevera
13 playing a major role in the “Bay of Pigs” in 1961
14 an overthrow of the Honduran Government in 1974
15 being the largest fruit crop today
16 Walmart selling more bananas annually than any other single item (Bloomberg Business Week)
Mr. Koeppel does an excellent job of providing supporting evidence for all of the above (except for item 16), and then goes on and explains why we may be in danger of losing the banana that we know and love within the next 5 to 30 years. This book is a “sleeper”, if I hadn’t had a specific interest in agriculture, I wouldn’t have picked it up. I’m so glad that I did because it has far more to contribute than an agricultural lesson (though it provides real life examples of every facet of the agriculture business). Anyone, with any interest in history and world changing events will enjoy this book.
