According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), bananas top the list for the most commonly consumed fresh fruit in America. In 2010, the USDA estimated that out of the 46.5 pounds of fresh fruit the average American consumes per year, 10.4 of those pounds are bananas.1 Bananas are not grown in the USA. There are numerous issues related to bananas , but let’s focus on the implications of the fact that Americans’ favorite fruit cannot actually be grown in North America.
History of the Banana
Many people do not realize that bananas are native to Asia, not the Caribbean or Central America.2 Archeologists know that humans in the Kuk Valley in New Guinea domesticated the banana plant around 8,000 B.C.E. However, it is possible that the plant was domesticated in other parts of Southeast Asia before this time. It is difficult to trace the diffusion of the banana because there have been several phases throughout history.3
During the first diffusion, the banana can be traced to the Philippines and then was dispersed widely throughout India, Indonesia, Australia, and Malaysia in the following millennia. By 3,000 B.C.E., the banana had reached eastern Africa and Madagascar. In 600 B.C.E., the banana is referred to in Buddhist literature. In 327 B.C.E., Greek emperor Alexander the Great discovered the banana while on an expedition in India. It was not until 200 B.C.E. that bananas made their way to Central America and they were most likely brought over by Southeast Asian sailors.4 The second wave of banana proliferation can be largely attributed to the spread of Islam. Muslim merchants carried bananas along trade routes between South Asia and the Middle East. It is also likely that Muslim merchants brought bananas from eastern Africa to western Africa.5
Asia and Europe were largely impacted by the third phase of the banana proliferation. By 1200 A.D., bananas were being grown in Japan as a source of fiber for textiles ranging from kimonos to tablecloths. Moorish invasions spread bananas throughout Europe. Later, in the 1400s and 1500s, Portuguese sailors brought bananas to Brazil, where they then spread to the already-existing sugar plantation economy in the Caribbean.6 Bananas suited the colonial plantation system very well. First, they were useful for providing shade for other plantation crops that needed varied sunlight, such as coffee, cacao, and peppers. Second, since bananas were not labor intensive to grow and had a high-energy content, they became a crucial food source for sugar plantation owners to feed their slave populations.7
Still, after centuries, bananas had not yet reached North America. Finally, in 1870 Captain Lorenzo Dow Baker returned to Jersey City with bananas he had bought in Jamaica. He sold the fruit with great success and subsequently decided to partner up with Andrew Preston to form the Boston Fruit Company. Around the same time, Minor Cooper Keith, an American businessman, began to build a railroad in Costa Rica, which he then used to export bananas to the United States. Through this venture, he became partners with the men of Boston Fruit Company, and in 1898, the three men formed the United Fruit Company. Together, they owned 75% of the banana market in the United States.8
The United Fruit plantations were struck by a fungus known as “Panama Disease” in 1903 due to rainforest to make way for replacement plantations. The expansion of United Fruit was met with very little government resistance in Central America. In fact, in 1928 United Fruit plantation workers in Columbia went on strike for improved worker rights and it was later discovered that United Fruit paid the Columbian military to stop the strike using any means. The result was that 1,000 people, bystanders and strikers alike, were killed. In a similar vein, when Guatemalan president Jacobo Arbenz declared that he would return over 200,000 acres of United Fruit land to Guatemalan peasants, United Fruit, with the support of the United States government, succeeded in exiling Arbenz. This exile led to over 40 years of repression in Guatemala, but United Fruit got their land back.9
Consequences of the Banana Industry
For the last 150 years, bananas have had a remarkable impact on Central American workers, ecosystems, politics, and economies. In terms of environmental impacts, the list is endless. poor soil quality .10 In addition, the bags used to cover up the bananas and protect them from insects often end up in the ocean where marine life mistakenly eat them.11
Banana plantation workers are also exposed to a medley of negative health impacts. Pesticides are often applied via aerial fumigation on these plantations, which severely impacts the workers’ health. Human Rights Watch has documented many cases in Ecuador of child laborers getting sick after aerial fumigation. The organization has also documented child sexual harassment incidents on plantations. A particular pesticide called DBCP was created in the United States but was banned for use by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 1979. However, plantations in Costa Rica continue to use DBCP in order to keep their bananas blemish-free. Alarmingly, this pesticide has been linked to many cases of sterilization in male workers.12
Male worker at a Chiquita plantation in western Panamá in 2011. Photo credit: Alison Mooradian.
Female worker at a Chiquita plantation in western Panamá in 2011. Photo credit: Alison Mooradian.
What is the future of the banana?
It is hard to think of how the banana could still be America’s favorite fruit after looking at its many negative impacts,. However, with the spread of a new strain of Panama Disease and the fact that 97% of bananas sold are of a single variety called Cavendish, scientists believe that the banana as we know it may be wiped out within the next 10-30 years.13 Author of Banana: The Fate of the Fruit that Changed the World Dan Koeppel explained why bananas are so susceptible to disease:
Cavendish bananas, are fundamentally clones of each other. There are no seeds. Every banana is grown basically by taking a cutting from one and turning it into another tree. So every Cavendish banana that we eat… is exactly the same genetically as every other one.14
One solution that is often offered up is to buy bananas that have the FAIRTRADE Certification mark. FAIRTRADE bananas are produced by either small farmer organizations or by plantations that meet high worker rights and environmental standards. However, Koeppel points out that:
[t]here’s not enough land to grow enough organic bananas to make them a practical replacement for all of our supermarket bananas. That’s because organic bananas, in order to fight disease, have to be grown at higher altitudes and cooler temperatures… And there are just not enough high-altitude, cool-temperature places that are also hospitable to growing tropical bananas.15
Perhaps a better solution for Americans is to eat fewer bananas and rely more on locally available fruits and vegetables. In fact, one cup of cooked Swiss chard or spinach contains more potassium than a banana and will be less inflammatory for your body.16 As the Panama Disease makes its way through Central American banana plantations, we will have to see what the fate of our favorite fruit will be.
