Bloodless Coup

This article is about 3 yrs old now, but it gives a good detailed picture of The Banana Problem.

Er, I meant to mention that the PopSci article was also written by Koeppel.

The end of bananas, or those crappy tasting pale yellow things we are conditioned to buy from US groceries? I've eaten almost a dozen different kinds of bananas, and the ones we get here can't come close to the other varieties in flavor, texture or durability. Good riddance.

Durability? Really? I thought the knock on the "good" bananas was always that they didn't last long enough to make shipping on a mass scale feasible.

Oh I'm certainly not going to say they are the best thing ever. I much prefer plantains for instance (and just typing that makes me hungry for them - really hungry for them). But the Cavendish are a convenient snack, or work well in smoothies and what have you, and sure they aren't as good - but if those are the only ones that travel well and resist disease well ... well I hate the thought of bananas suddenly becoming a high-priced exotic item.

Ah, that's right. You were gone when I returned from home with regional bananas. They were delicious. Maybe I'll smuggle up some more next time.

Re: durability, I don't know about the mass shipping, but the ones I would buy had not had the pampered shipping conditions (or refrigeration) that the lame ones get, and they did just fine. Their texture and edibility seemed more durable, even if they are not as pretty. Given that durability in the US market has a lot to do with the visuals, not the taste, it would not surprise me if the other varieties don't look as durable but hold up just fine. For example, the ones I brought home from the holidays traveled 1000+ miles over, hmm, almost a week in the back of my car just in a grocery store bag, and then it took almost a week to eat them, and the insides weren't even beginning to get mushy. Had they not had an unfortunate encounter with a suitcase that split some skins open requiring hastened eating, I'm sure they would have been fine even longer.