Banana

<b>In the vein of Mark Kurlansky's bestselling <i>Salt </i>and <i>Cod</i> a gripping chronicle of the myth mystery and uncertain fate of the world&#146;s most popular fruit</b><br><br> In this fascinating and surprising exploration of the banana&#146;s history cultural significance and endangered future award-winning journalist Dan Koeppel gives readers plenty of food for thought. Fast-paced and highly entertaining <i>Banana</i> takes us from jungle to supermarket from corporate boardrooms to kitchen tables around the world. We begin in the Garden of Eden&#151;examining scholars&#146; belief that Eve&#146;s &#147;apple&#148; was actually a banana&#151; and travel to early-twentieth-century Central America where aptly named &#147;banana republics&#148; rose and fell over the crop while the companies now known as Chiquita and Dole conquered the marketplace. Koeppel then chronicles the banana&#146;s path to the present ultimately&#151;and most alarmingly&#151;taking us to banana plantations across the globe that are being destroyed by a fast-moving blight with no cure in sight&#151;and to the high-tech labs where new bananas are literally being built in test tubes in a race to save the world&#146;s most beloved fruit.