|| 4 ⭐️ ||

Well that was interesting. Who knew the history of the world’s most beloved fruit was so depressing, and its future so seemingly bleak? I’d be curious to learn about where the banana situation is at now, since this book was published back in 2007; but I’m guessing not a whole lot has changed. We’re still eating Cavendish bananas and they’re not yet being lab-grown. They haven’t gone extinct just yet. 

It was pretty sad to learn about all the human exploitation still going on in many banana plantations. Chemicals may keep the banana diseases from completely taking over the world, but the trade-off is it makes plantation workers sick and/or sterile. Wages are often awfully low. And as far as I know, this is still an issue. Paying the few extra dollars for organic/fair-trade bananas has always been worth it, and now I have even more reason to.

Ultimately a very fun microhistory. I wish bananas the best and I hope they can somehow hang in there for years to come.