Banana Cultures

The comparison between John Soluri’s Banana Cultures and “The Banana in US History” is an interesting one. While Soluri certainly uses a commodity chain styled approach, and even makes explicit reference to the concept in his final chapter, he also makes a criticism about commodity research in general. By focusing excessively on the political and economic elements of a commodity, Soluri accuses, the environmental effects of a commodity are left out of the picture. Considering how often the development of commodities leads to extensive environmental modification, I suspect he may have a significant point. This is likely especially true for agricultural commodities that totally alter the ecosystem (such as extensive banana plantations – or massive nopiaries for cochineal.)

Banana Cultures is a relatively balanced book in its topics, but it pays special attention to the physical processes involved in producing bananas for production, especially in the care for plants and the ongoing struggle against plant diseases. While the technical discussion did get a little dense at times, it was interesting to learn just how many effects the production of export-quality bananas had, not just on the workers but also on the environment around them. There was also a relatively large discussion regarding the methods by which the commodity was advertised to consumers, and how those consumers selected the product, which was interesting and relatively unique thus far among the books we have read. On the other hand, one question that was not really answered is how bananas became popular in the first place, something I know at least part of the class was wondering last week.