I always find it fascinating to think about how things that seem really basic to our lives, became that way. Take for example the most popular fruit in the U.S. - the Banana. For years I have wondered how something that did not exist in the United States became a staple. Today I'm grateful to finally research this and learn a seemingly simple fruit has a complex history. Here are a few interesting tidbits:
There are about 400 -500, one website said 1000, types of bananas. In the U.S. we eat one - the Cavendish banana.
The banana was introduced in the U.S. in the late 1800's (we hadn't overthrown the government of Hawaii yet) and its history is complex. One of the articles I skimmed is called:
When Bananas Ruled the World: Intrigue. Power. Corruption. Death. Sex. The history of oil has nothing on that of the yellow fruit.
Videos like this showing the not so pretty picture on bananas:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQZfIrqnTEc&feature=related
I thought I might reach some sort of conclusion from this research, but I haven't. When I visited Costa Rica I was amazed to discover fruit I had never heard of, lots of it. For whatever reasons, pineapples and bananas get all the fame and therefore - land.
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