375. The Most Interesting Fruit in the World

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Documentary, Society & Culture

4.6 • 32K Ratings

🗓️ 18 April 2019

⏱️ 37 minutes

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Summary

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?

Transcript

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0:00.0	In 1876, the city of Philadelphia commemorated 100 years of American independence with a centennial
0:11.1	exposition.
0:12.1	It was a big trade fair.
0:13.6	It was like a world fair.
0:15.7	And there was a horticultural exhibit, and they had a banana plant with bananas growing
0:20.3	with it.
0:21.3	That's Virginia Scott Jenkins.
0:23.9	She's a cultural historian in the author of Bananas, an American History.
0:29.4	And they had to put a guard on it because people wanted to, you know, pick a leaf or poke
0:34.2	at it because people hadn't seen one of these things.
0:37.5	The banana plant, and yes, it's a plant technically not a tree, and the banana is technically
0:43.0	a berry.
0:44.0	Anyway, this banana plant had stiff competition for attention at the centennial expo.
0:50.1	Also on display were the right arm and flame of the Statue of Liberty, which hadn't yet
0:54.9	been erected in New York Harbor.
0:57.2	There were the first public demonstrations of the typewriter and of Alexander Graham
1:01.3	Bell's telephone, and an appearance by the president of the United States, Ulysses S.
1:06.5	Grant.
1:07.5	Still, the humble banana plant caused a stir, thanks to its novelty.
1:11.8	They're not native to the Americas at all.
1:17.0	And in North America, bananas weren't even possible.
1:19.6	Well, they'd take about 18 months from sprouting to fruit and the climate and different
	...

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