The scientific name for the banana is Musa Sapentium, or the “wise fruit,” which was given by the Swedish scientist Carolus Linnaeus in 1750. The word “musa” derives from “mauz”, the Arabic word for fruit, and “sapentium” is Latin derived to mean wise. The green banana, or plantain, was then called Musa Paradisiaca, “the fruit of paradise.” Banana domestication began in New Guinea around 10 thousand years ago, then spread westward to Southeast Asia. By 600 AD, it had arrived in Africa through the Austronesian settlement of Madagascar.
In 1876, the banana was a luxury item in the United States, being featured next to Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone in the horticultural hall of the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition. Yet, by the first decade of 1900, banana consumption went from 15 million bunches to 40 million bunches, outselling apples and oranges. The Houston Post in 1913 asked, “How does it happen that the home-grown apple is placed beyond the reach of the average consumer and that the foreign-grown banana has increased in quality and decreased in price?” It happened in part due to the fruit’s ability to travel well, thanks to its tough, thick skin, and in part due to its consistency, thanks to its predictable time to ripen. The banana fingers remain green as long as they’re on the tree. As soon as they’re cut down, they begin to ripen. Picking the fruit triggers the release of ethylene gas which starts the ripening process. They arrive at the store green and cycle from yellow to flecked with brown in almost exactly seven days. There is no other fruit more consistent or reliable. Significantly, it happened in large part due to technological advancement in transportation.
For the banana to keep green throughout transportation, it has to be kept cold. Before the refrigerated ship, bananas had to be stowed in ventilated vessels, in which air was circulated over the fruit. This method was far from ideal, as the banana often ripened too fast. The breakthrough came at the turn of the 20th century with machine induced cool air. Enormous fans, forcing air to circulate over brine-cooling batteries, kept the banana chambers at a steady 48 degrees, the ideal temperature to hold them green while on board. By 1928, the United Fruit company had amassed a fleet of 80 refrigerated steam ships. By the 1930’s, turboelectric drive enabled even faster traveling, and the company’s banana boats gradually became the world’s largest private fleet.
But for the banana to cost half as much as an apple, every part of the process from farm to table had to be in complete control. United Fruit and its competitors took charge of the entire global banana supply chains: planting, cultivating, picking, transporting, marketing, selling, and not in the least, political meddling. By 1900, US banana enterprises began to settle outposts throughout Central America. In 1912, the US’s invasion of Honduras granted United Fruit broad rights to build railroads and grow bananas in the country. Aggressive putdowns of banana workers’ strikes, along with proxy through local governments ensure banana plantations upkeep. Pope Benedict XV, upon returning from a visit to Latin America in the early 19th century, described the banana as “a weapon of conquest.” In 1924, a New York Times story, headlined Lowly Banana Rebuilds an Empire, described the presence of US enterprises in Central America as “the rehabilitation of an ancient empire.” “The opening up of the humid lowlands of Central America by the new seaports, railroads, and banana plantations of the United Fruit Company is more than a story of business faith and commercial enterprise. It is a demonstration of empire building with a new ingredient capable of correcting the mistakes of the past.” After the Colombia Banana Massacre of 1929, the term “Banana Republic”, coined by O. Henry in Cabbages and Kings, came to describe nations that were puppet-string, readily acquiesced to the fruit companies and the US government.
While there are over a thousand banana cultivars, most people, especially those living in non-tropical climates, consume the Cavendish variety. The requirement for a “standard” banana in terms of size, color, and taste has set off massive monoculture banana plantations. The Cavendish bananas have no seed in them and are propagated through cloning. They are thus genetically identical, whether grown in Central America or Australia, which makes them especially susceptible to diseases. During the late 19th and early 20th century, the Gros Michel, the “Big Mike” variety, was the common cultivar until it was ravaged by the Panama disease, becoming extinct and replaced by the Cavendish by 1960.
In 1991, the first sign of the new Panama disease, the Tropical Race 4 (TR4) appeared in a Malaysian factory farm. By the mid 1990’s, it had spread to banana farms in Halmahera and Papua New Guinea, then to Africa, the Middle East, Oceania, and most recently Latin America. It turns out this new race of Panama disease is not new at all, but has been in Asian soil all along. While it is deadly for the Cavendish banana, Malaysia’s wild and varied banana population has evolved and survived along with these diseases. During the Gros Michel era, the Panama disease was likely brought to the Americas from Asia. In a reverse order, the banana was now being brought to the disease.
Unsurprisingly the new Panama disease has set off another global crisis, as 90% of export production is made up of the Cavendish banana. While the extinction of this banana would certainly lessen the global economy, dwindling the livelihood of those affected, let us rest assured that the banana as a species is doing just fine. We, the consumers, may just have to eat an apple instead.
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