{"product_id":"banana-isbn-9780452290082","title":"Banana","description":"\u003cb\u003eIn the vein of Mark Kurlansky's bestselling \u003ci\u003eSalt \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eCod\u003c\/i\u003e, a gripping chronicle of the myth, mystery, and uncertain fate of the world’s most popular fruit\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e 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, \u003ci\u003eBanana\u003c\/i\u003e 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.“Required reading.”—\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew York Post\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “Ambitious in scope… both fascinating and disturbing... I’ll never walk through the produce aisle the same way again… [\u003ci\u003eBanana\u003c\/i\u003e] is at once a political and economic treatise, a scientific explication, and a cultural history.”—\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Boston Globe\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “Clear, engaging… admirable… part historical narrative and part pop-science adventure.”—\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eSan Francisco Chronicle\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “[A] brilliant history.”—\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eSeattle Post-Intelligencer\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “A fascinating and surprising history of our most ubiquitous fruit.”—\u003cb\u003eEdward Humes\u003ci\u003e, \u003c\/i\u003ePulitzer Prize-winning author of\u003ci\u003e Monkey Girl \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eMississippi Mad\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “The history of oil has nothing on that of the yellow fruit.”—\u003cb\u003eSalon.com\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eDan Koeppel\u003c\/b\u003e, a 2011 James Beard Award winner, is a science and nature writer who has written for \u003ci\u003eNational Geographic, Outside, Scientific American, Wired\u003c\/i\u003e, and other national publications. He has discussed bananas on NPR’s \u003ci\u003eFresh Air \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eScience Friday.\u003c\/i\u003e","brand":"Plume","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46303830540517,"sku":"NP9780452290082","price":18.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780452290082.jpg?v=1767722149","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/banana-isbn-9780452290082","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}