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