Have you ever pondered where you food comes from?
I don't mean, where it was grown, or how many miles it's travelled to be on your plate. I mean where it actually came from.
Where did all those things we take for granted actually start out?
This blog aims to tell some of the stories behind the foods we eat every day. We want to remind people that what we take for granted are often the end products of some remarkable tales.
And for our first blog, we want to start with the humble Banana.
It's a good place to start, the most popular produce item sold in our supermarkets, we all know what a banana looks like. But, it isn't technically a fruit.
Botanically the fruit are classed as berries but a banana tree is actually a herb. It's trunk is nothing of the sort, merely many leaves wrapped around a single stalk.
So much for our simple Banana.
And it didn't begin life in Central American or the Caribbean either. Banana's originated in south-east Asia and Papua New Guinea and only made their way to America in the 16th century, popular as they were with Portuguese explorers. Oh they weren't yellow either. Originally they were either red or green and required cooking before eating (these varieties are now commonly know as plantains). The sweet yellow banana we know today was a mutation spotted on an Central American plantation. It grew quickly in popularity once people realised it could just be eaten as it was.
The banana is huge business. It is the biggest selling fruit in the world (or herb, or berry, depending on your classification.) easily outselling oranges and apples. It is the most sold item in most supermarkets in the UK and it has been big business for nearly 200 years now.
And over the course of those 200 years, the banana has had the biggest impact on the countries of Central America and the Caribbean, and is where the phrase 'Banana Republic' was coined.
The term Banana Republic originally described a country that was completely dominated by Banana producing companies. And the biggest Banana republic of them all was Guatemala.
Historically, United Fruit was one of two controlling firms in the Banana industry (The other being Dole.) By the middle of the 20th Century, United Fruit dominated several central American countries and had significant political links back in the US. As with so much else, it wasn't long before the humble banana became another proxy in the cold war. Left wing and Communist governments of American countries denounced the business practices of firms like United Fruit, They accused them of exploiting native workers and actively encouraged strike action. No where was this more prevalent than the small state of Guatemala.
Seen through the prism of the 1950's this was viewed by some as the thin end of the wedge. Communism could not be allowed to take hold in the USA's backyard. Those sentiments were exploited by the management of United Fruit who had connections to the CIA in the form of Allen Dulles, Director of the organisation and brother of the US Secretary of State, who was a former Chairman of United Fruit and was still on the payroll at the time,
The CIA energetically took up the case and sought to convince President Eisenhower to invade Guatemala. In 1954, Honduran forces (containing exiled Guatemalans), backed by the CIA invaded Guatemala and installed a right wing dictator, over throwing the existing, democratically elected, president.
The needs of the simple banana were bigger than democracy itself.
And that wasn't the beginning of it, we haven't even mentioned the Banana wars of the first third of the last century which spanned nearly all of central America as fledgling nations sought to maintain independence in the face of huge American corporations operating within their borders, often as a parallel state.
But the Banana isn't all global politics and botanical classifications. It has a lighter side too. How about the phrase 'Top Banana'; it has been the name of a Broadway musical, a TV program, a computer game, a novel by Bill James and most importantly for a food blog, a variety of Jelly Bean!
And there's more; the average person in the UK eats 100 banana's a year and the inside of a banana skin can be used to polish your shoes or calm a mosquito bite, but...
The modern banana is still not all good news.
The Banana we buy in our supermarkets is the product of a global food chain. As with so much else that we consume, variety has been suppressed in the chase for the most reliable product possible. There are hundreds of varieties of banana, yet we only tend to consume one. 97% of banana's grown are of the Cavendish variety and that is farmed on huge plantations where often workers earn very little.
It should make us all pause for thought. We are increasingly able to buy fruit and vegetables all year round. We can buy strawberries as easily in December as we can in June. Our food is shipped thousands of miles in the name of convenience, when really we could do with remembering that fresh produce is meant to be seasonal.
In this sense the Banana was a perfect way to start this blog. The most popular fruit on the planet, it has been a cause for war, a symbol of popular culture and is now a shining example of the global nature of the food we eat. Grown around the world, in Central American and Asia, it is the all year round staple of the fruit bowl. Ripe banana's are available in every supermarket, every day. And yet, for it to become that ubiquitous has taken exploration, war, exploitation, suppression of natural varieties and global transport networks.
The Banana is one of food's greatest success stories, but as always, success comes at a price.
Just ask the Guatemalans.
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