Banana

choi

Banana diseases | Yes, We Have No Bananas; A huge export industry is battling for survival on two fronts. Economist, Mar 1, 2014.
www.economist.com/news/internati ... -we-have-no-bananas

Note:
(a) "Yes! We Have No Bananas" is the title of a song sung by Eddie Cantor in a 1922 Broadway revue "Make It Snappy.”  The song was inspired by a shortage of the Gros Michel bananas, which began with the infestation of Panama disease early in the 20th century.  Wikipedia
(b) Banana is, “botanically, a herb”

banana
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana
(first domesticated in Papua New Guinea; The banana plant is the largest herbaceous flowering plant; Most are around 5 m (16 ft) tall, with a range from 'Dwarf Cavendish' plants at around 3 m (10 ft) to 'Gros Michel' at 7 m (23 ft) or more)

(c) “Then Panama disease struck. The soil fungus swept through Central and South America, killing banana plants in its path. By the 1960s Gros Michel (Big Mike), the variety accounting for virtually all exports, was close to extinction. The export industry approached collapse.
But in the nick of time growers identified a resistant commercial variety, called Cavendish. Compared with Gros Michel, it was small and bland. * * * Soon Cavendish replaced Gros Michel as the world’s top banana: the variety now accounts for 95% of all exports. Bananas are now the world’s most valuable fruit. * * * Americans eat more bananas than apples and oranges together.
(i) Panama disease
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panama_disease
(ii) Gros Michel (n; F, lit[erally], big Michael)
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gros%20michel

(d) William Cavendish, 6th Duke of Devonshire
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Cavendish,_6th_Duke_of_Devonshire
(1790-1858; “The world's most commercially exploited banana, the Cavendish, was named in honour of William Cavendish, who acquired an early specimen, which he raised in his glasshouse. This plant is the progenitor of almost all the worldwide varieties of Cavendish banana”)
(i) The Cavendish banana was “brought from southern China in about 1826 and taken to Mauritius” and then to England.

* Robert Drewe, Pointing the Finger at an Unkind Appellation. The Age, Feb 18, 2012
www.theage.com.au/entertainment/ ... -20120216-1t9w8.htm
("Some plants [which later were called Cavendish] were sent to England in 1829”)

There is no need to read the rest of The Age article.
(ii) “Only the wealthy could afford to cultivate this rare treat. Just before Christmas in 1834, William Spencer Cavendish, the 6th Duke of Devonshire, wrote to the Chaplain at Alton Towers: ‘My Dear Sir, A thousand thanks for the Banana, it arrived quite safe and I am delighted to have an opportunity of seeing that most beautiful and curious Fruit. It is the admiration of everybody and has been feasted upon at dinner today according to the directions.’"
(iii) The English surname Cavendish is the name of a place in Suffolk county: “from an Old English byname Cafna (meaning ‘bold’, ‘daring’) + Old English edisc ‘enclosed pasture’”
(iv) Devon
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devon
(historically also known as Devonshire)
(v) history of Alton Towers
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Alton_Towers
(located near the village of Alton in Staffordshire, England; a former seat of the Earls of Shrewsbury [who sold it in two steps: 1918 and 1924; now a major theme park)


(e) "But once more the export industry [as well as Cavendish] is fighting to survive—and this time, on two fronts. First, Black Sigatoka, a disease which blackens leaves and can halve yields, is showing resistance to the fungicide used to combat it. * * * Second, Foc Tropical Race 4, a strain of Panama disease that attacks the Cavendish, has struck in several countries. Central and South America, which produce four-fifths of exports, have so far escaped."

Black Sigatoka
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Sigatoka
(f) "plantains (close relatives that must be cooked before eating)"

cooking plantain
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooking_plantain
(or plantain; There is no formal botanical distinction between the two [it and banana]; The difference between the two terms "plantain" and "banana", used here, is based purely on how the fruits are consumed)
-

choi

Dan Koeppel, Yes, We Will Have No Bananas. New York Times, June 18, 2008 (op-ed).
www.nytimes.com/2008/06/18/opinion/18koeppel.html

Quote:

“That bananas have long been the cheapest fruit at the grocery store is astonishing. They’re grown thousands of miles away, they must be transported in cooled containers and even then they survive no more than two weeks after they’re cut off the tree. Apples, in contrast, are typically grown within a few hundred miles of the store and keep for months in a basket out in the garage. Yet apples traditionally have cost at least twice as much per pound as bananas.

“not so long ago, bananas were virtually unknown here. They became a staple only after the men who in the late 19th century founded the United Fruit Company (today’s Chiquita) figured out how to get bananas to American tables quickly — by clearing rainforest in Latin America, building railroads and communication networks and inventing refrigeration techniques to control ripening.

“Over and over, banana companies, aided by the American military, intervened whenever there was a chance that any 'banana republic' might end its cooperation.

"banana importers sell only a single variety of their fruit, the Cavendish. There are more than 1,000 varieties of bananas — most of them in Africa and Asia — but except for an occasional exotic, the Cavendish is the only banana we see in our markets. It is the only kind that is shipped and eaten everywhere from Beijing to Berlin, Moscow to Minneapolis.

“By 1960, the Gros Michel[, ‘a variety that everyone agreed was tastier,’] was essentially extinct and the banana industry nearly bankrupt. It was saved at the last minute by the Cavendish, a Chinese variety that had been considered something close to junk: inferior in taste, easy to bruise (and therefore hard to ship) and too small to appeal to consumers. But it did resist the blight. Over the past decade, however, a new, more virulent strain of Panama disease has begun to spread across the world, and this time the Cavendish is not immune.

Note: banana republic
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_republic
(section 1 Origins of the term)

choi

The Chiquita Story. Chiquita Brands International, Inc (headquarters  Charlotte, North Carolina), undated.
www.chiquita.com/Our-Company/The-Chiquita-Story.aspx

Quote:

"1871   Minor C Keith traveled to Costa Rica and contracted to build a national railroad. Since he needed cargo and passengers for the railroad, he planted bananas alongside the tracks to provide paying fares both inland and back to the sea.

"1885   Captain Lorenzo Dow] Baker started a partnership with Andrew Preston and investors and called it Boston Fruit Company.

"1899   Keith and his railroad companies merged with the Boston Fruit Company to create the United Fruit Company on March 30, 1899.

"1900   Panama disease first destroyed banana farms in Latin America.

"1944  The [United Fruit] Company introduced [as a brand] the name Chiquita and the Miss Chiquita character and jingle.

"1990   The Company officially changed its name to Chiquita Brands International, Inc. to take advantage of global brand name recognition.