The US grows hardly any tropical fruit. So why are politicians and political commentators saying the country is at risk of devolving into a banana republic?
Analysis suggests import restrictions on bananas in Australia are a classic rent‐seeking policy, leaving Australians to subsidise each grower by more than $250,000 a year.
Thomas Johnson’s illustration of his banana plant from The Herball Or Generall Historie of Plantes.
Wikimedia Commons
The story of Britain’s favourite tropical fruit (and how it came to dominate the world).
A banana on the salt lake plain at Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia, hints at themes of genetics, food and human journeys in three books recommended by fly scientist Thomas Merritt.
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Every single Cavendish banana plant worldwide is genetically identical. This vast monoculture sets them up for disastrous disease outbreaks. But researchers have ideas on how to protect the crop.
The bubble berries trialling in Waitrose supermarkets may taste of bubble gum, but they are not some clever 21st century genetic modification. These beautifully fragrant fruits, which are a variety of…
The completed sequence of the banana’s 11 chromosomes has global implications.
Caro Wallace
What’s not to love about bananas? Besides being a wildly popular dessert fruit, they are the staple food of millions of people in developing countries. The current edition of Nature carries a paper that…
The benefits of lifting the import ban on bananas outweigh the risks.
Maxey
The ban on importing apples from New Zealand was lifted earlier this month, bringing to an end a restriction established in 1921. With this long history of protection from imports, it is not unexpected…