Save the Banana, Save Us All?

Bananas are dying. There is no cure. They all die as it spreads, and it spreads quickly. Soon – in five, 10 or 30 years – the yellow creamy fruit as we know it will not exist.” -Johann Hari, Huffington Post article: Why Bananas Are a Parable for our Times

Hari claims that the very industry who built up the beloved banana, will end up destroying it. And he says it is a parable for our times.

Selling out the banana, eh?

That’s almost as bad as Rachel Ray selling out to Dunkin Donuts.

Killing the very thing that supplies you sustainability. Or in this case, profit!

Save the banana, save us all?

I don’t really think that this banana situation is a parable for our times, but I do think that the system in which we produce, harvest, package, ship, sell and purchase food is a tainted one.

Chopping down acres of rainforest to re-plant banana trees seems like a bonehead idea. Where was the ‘green police’ way back when all this raping of nature was occurring?

TEST TUBE NANNERS

And the suggested answer to saving the banana? Genetically modified bananas? No way. I’d rather eat spinach on my cornflakes than a test-tube banana. Really.

The best answer I have found is the recent LOCAVORE trend. Supporting local farmers and regional foods. But this doesn’t mean that the folks in Maine can never eat Florida’s grapefruits, and vice-versa for blueberries. We don’t need to be extremist abut it. But the theory makes sense on a good-for-our-planet level.

And for the bananas?

Lets save them. I’m sure Dole and Chiquita are looking into this problem. And hopefully putting some money into it. The most consumers can do is pledge their support for bananas and voice concern over lack of regulations to protect the banana’s survival.

Gosh, this sounds like a banana-rights issue now???

I wonder if we would put up the same fight for brussel sprouts? I like to think, yes. 🙂

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