The most controversial part of my book is my assertion that biotech is key to saving the banana. I came by this assertion with a lot of difficulty – initially believing that most genetic engineering in our food supply was a bad thing. But, as usual, the issue isn’t black and white. With bananas, the shade of gray is especially green.
Read the piece here.
963 in nonfiction, according to Amazon. (“Banana” is number nine.)
All this week. More consumer and publishing-oriented banana information, as well as a couple of “out-takes” from the book (director’s cuts? Who knew? Link.)
From an interview I did back in December. Learn about slipping on banana peels, extinction, and fruity folklore here.
A really good review by Ralph Ranalli in the Boston Globe, January 3:
“Thanks to Dan Koeppel, I’ll never walk through the produce aisle the same way again.
Until I read his new book, “Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World,” I had never really wondered why there were myriad varieties of apple – Royal Gala, Granny Smith, Red Delicious, Macoun, McIntosh, etc. – yet just one monolithic, curved sweet yellow fruit labeled simply “bananas.” (Plantains don’t count; they’re green and you have to cook them before you eat them.)The reason, it turns out, is that the banana as we know it is a worldwide poster child for bio-nondiversity. Known as the Cavendish, the bananas sold in my local supermarket in Watertown are virtual genetic duplicates of the ones sold at my sister’s greengrocer in Los Angeles and at food markets in Tokyo, Paris, and Rio de Janeiro. The Cavendish is grown everywhere from Central America to New Guinea to India to the Caribbean to Southeast Asia.
In “Banana,” Koeppel, a longtime outdoors and adventure writer, weaves a multifaceted story about how the fruit’s unique nature has allowed it to become a worldwide food staple and a geopolitical force that has both shaped and toppled nations.”
(complete review after the jump, or read it directly at the Globe here.)
Whether or not I will wear a banana costume to readings (next: Vroman’s Bookstore Pasadena, CA, January 10).
The answer is probably not. But if you wear one, I’ll give you a free book. Here’s a link to over 60 different yellow fruit suits to choose from.
Nobel Prize winner Paul Krugman recommends it.
Listen to my interview on NPR's Fresh Air.
My own op-ed in the New York Times.
Other Books:
