Freakonomics Radio
The Most Interesting Fruit in the World
The banana used to be a luxury good. Now it’s the most popular fruit in the U.S. and elsewhere. But the production efficiencies that made it so cheap have also made it vulnerable to a deadly fungus that may wipe out the one variety most of us eat. Scientists do have a way to save it — but will Big Banana let them?
Picture yourself in a grocery store: You see piles and piles of apples, all different varieties. About 95% of apples eaten in the U.S. are grown in the U.S.; the imports usually just plug a hole at the end of the growing season.
Now check out the pile of bananas. The first thing you notice is there’s usually just the one variety, the Cavendish. Every one of them has been grown, picked, washed, and boxed in another country and then shipped, still green, in a temperature-controlled environment. At their destination, they’re put in special ripening rooms that provide, among other amenities, the release of gases that trick the banana into thinking it’s still back home in the tropics. At a temperature of 64 degrees, a banana can ripen in as little as four days; at 58 degrees, it…
