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Ethanol wasn't pushed by environmentalists so much as by corn growers associations and companies such as ADM both saying it would be great for the environment so they could push through subsidies for it and get a double benefit of cheap corn because it was subsidized on one end and then subsidized again on the other and because there was just way too much corn (about a billion bushel surplus in 2005). Many environmentalists have been screaming about the idiocy for years but no one would listen till it was done and proved silly.

Same with bananas, they've been a story for years now from the banana genetic problems due to massive monoculture and loss of forests that grow wild bananas (now extinct -- in fact the cavendish is a replacement for a better banana the Gros Michel that was destroyed in pretty much the same way this one is as recently as the sixties) to the terrorist buyoffs by the companies among them Chiquita, Dole and Del Monte which also involved intimidating workers including killing anyone who seemed to be a leader. It's where the term "banana republic" originated (not from the clothing store, ugh). But it's taken this book to get some good mainstream publicity which I'm really grateful for. Thank you Dan Koeppel.

It's still a huge issue and there are groups trying to make a difference and asking us to be picky about what we buy because of the control of the companies.

Here's an interesting 7 minute video on banana farming in Jamaica and how the low prices and company control is forcing farmers to other forms of agriculture that aren't as legal:

With the future of the banana business in jeopardy, Caribbean farmers are turning to marijuana production.

Nebo was a banana farmer prepared for the WTO's damming decision. "The more the decline in the banana, the more the production of marijuana. Where there is a market I will plant." And at 2000ft up, away from the gaze of police, the holy herb is flourishing. The hardy marijuana rastas, tending these crops earn 10 to 20 times as much as banana farmers. Tipping up a fertilizer bucket of compressed ganja Bungo proudly displays his cannabis castle worth $20,000. It's a risky business though for not only are the US squeezing the banana industry, they are at the forefront of a Caribbean drugs crackdown. Last December US marines descended from the skies in a wave of helicopter attacks on the illegal ganja fields. They say they destroyed over a million plants. The growers though are unrepentant: "We are concerned about drugs like you are. But you can't expect us to be giving everything and getting nothing in return."

Thanks for the steer on the other book aharste. Thanks too Ed Levine for spreading the word some more. :)

I don't eat them because they aren't local, their forced, profit-motivated cultivation is destroying forests and their denizens, they harbor fruit fly eggs in the skin which then hatch in the home, and I don't really like them especially in comparison to the great fruit that is local.

As far as those organic ones that were off, it's most likely the way they were stored and processed along the way rather than that they were organic. There was a huge and expensive banana ripening room utilizing ethylene and pressure in a tunnel built a few years ago near me. State of the art and only for bananas...

I saw some banana's at my local farmer's market a couple of weeks ago, was really close to buying some but at $2/lb. I said no, which was funny, b/c that isn't too bad, but they are always under a $1 at the store.

I encountered a really weird phenomenon last week. Now that Dole has entered the banana marketing an aggressive way my local grocery store had Dole organic bananas fairly cheap - 59 cents per pound vs. 39 or 49 cents for the non-organic (which have usually been Chiquita at the store I shop in).

The Dole product looked really good - almost suspiciously perfect and blemish free relative to the way bananas, particularly organic ones , usually look. I bought them but there was a strange and not completely subtle difference in the texture - one that I found disagreeable. It's difficult to verbalize but I can only compare it the that sort of subtly spongy texture that a "water enhanced" ham or poultry product has compared to one that is not "enhanced". They were edible enough to eat but I won't buy organic bananas again unless they are a brand other than Dole (by the way - I have eaten non-Dole organic bananas in the past and they were just fine).

I do not feel guilty about eating anything. Mmm.. bananas.

*munch munch*

Makes sense that "we are what we eat" and certainly there was a link found between artificial food dye and hyperactivity. But, because research on these topics is not profitable (and jeopardizes billions in food industry profits) it is not funded, and historically discouraged. For example, researchers knew in the 1950s that transfats were harmful. It's taken fifty years and much health damage for the bans to begin. That said, just spouting paranoia and beliefs without proof never does an issue good. It just makes the status quo look less questionable to the general public. There are many harmful food additives, proven carcinogens in some cases, that the FDA allows to be used. http://expatriateskitchen.blogspot.com/2007/09/you-want-butylated-hydroxyanisole-with.html

I spent my childhood in China, where I ate no packaged food for the first decade of my life. My friends and neighbors were the same...everybody cooked everything from scratch all the time.

Within my circle of friends---and there were many---I didn't know anybody with allergies or asthma. In fact, I've never seen an inhaler until I came to the U.S. and it puzzled me for the longest time. We were all hearty kids and grew up to be healthy.

All I know is, a homegrown tomato and a chicken raised by love and care taste better and provide more nutrition than anything with HFCS. And variety matters. The more variety of food kids eat, the better for their health. I don't have lactose intolerance or acid reflux or get an upset stomach whenever there is "exotic" spices.

I trust my body and my personal experience. I don't need scientific experiments to tell me what's good for my health.

foodinmouth and brandonphx, I think then the issue becomes whether clean food is a social cause worth fighting for. I know that I personally DO make it a point to learn about what additives are and to take care with what I eat-- but I also think that food manufacturers' greed shouldn't trump the health of the populace. Yes, the FDA and USDA are ineffective-- why? Because they're blocked at every turn by corporate lobbyists. Read Marion Nestle's "Food Politics" to get an idea of how this works. It's not just a matter of individual decisions-- we can control what we buy, but not what appears on the shelf.