The new record holder, blocks from my house. A buck and a half a pound for what? “Very sweet” bananas? Not even organic. These were at the weekly farmers market held on Sunset Boulevard in the Silverlake neighborhood of Los Angeles. The genuine fresh produce offered there is great (this week, the strawberries were awesome), but I wonder whether shoppers have any clue that the bananas sold here – for double the price of what they cost at the Von’s market five minutes away – are exactly the same as what they’d get at that major supermarket.
Sweetness is a function of ripeness and travel time. These pricey fruit came from the same Latin American plantations, on the same boats, and via the same trucks that every other banana sold in the U.S. does. The vendor probably peeled off the Chiquita (or Dole, or other major importer) labels.
Good news for my shopping neighbors: Pineapples – at $4.50 each (upper right) – are a bargain. Vons charges $4.99.
Nobel Prize winner Paul Krugman 
You mean the legendary Silverlake banana plantations are only a myth?