01x04 - Banana

[bunniefuu]

[Redzepi] It wasn't until I was nearly

40 that I truly tasted a banana.

A plátano manzano, an apple banana

from a market in Tabasco, Mexico.

The first bite was a revelation.

Creamy like soft toffee, but with a

freshness like a wild Danish apple.

Mind-blowing.

Up until that point,

I never really thought of banana

as an ingredient to cook with.

But one bite of that plátano

manzano changed that.

How about you?

How many different bananas

have you tasted in your life?

Have you ever tasted the

tangy pink Musa velutina?

Or the starchy, sweet

Fe'i of French Polynesia?

There's the Blue Java with its whisper

of vanilla ice cream on the finish.

Burro bananas, red bananas,

Rhino Horn, Musa Belle,

Lady Fingers, Mona Lisa,

Orinoco, Goldfinger, Sweetheart.

There are more than 1,500

varieties of banana.

Yet most of us have

only tasted one:

Musa cavendishii, the Cavendish.

The banana behind nearly

99% of the world's exports.

How did that happen?

This is a story of two

recipes for banana.

One engineered by us,

that traveled the world,

fueled the free market and

redrew the geopolitical map.

The other that

stayed close to home,

with varieties as wild and

unpredictable as the weather.

Both recipes tell the story of the

most popular fruit on the planet.

One that reveals as much

about modern human society

and our relationship with Mother

Nature as any ingredient on earth.

Because the truth, when you

peel back the banana's history,

is almost too wild to believe.

[birds chirping]

[crowd chattering]

[in Malayalam] 60 rupees,

60 rupees, 60 rupees.

270.130, 130.

200 rupees. 150, 60, 70, 80.180.

[Redzepi, in English]

Bananas are thought to be

one of the world's first

domesticated fruits.

Ancient Buddhist texts place them

in India as far back as 500 BC,

where Hindus call them,

"the fruit of the wise men."

Today, India grows nearly a

quarter of the world's bananas.

Here, the fruit is an essential

ingredient of daily life.

A divine offering in

religious ceremonies.

An auspicious

decoration for weddings.

And a staple of most meals.

Dozens of varieties

of every size,

shape, color and flavor

serve a specific

culinary purpose.

But nowhere is banana diversity

celebrated more magnificently

than in the southwest

region of Kerala.

Here, Vinod Nair has dedicated his

life to fighting for the humble fruit.

Over the past 30 years, he's

created a veritable Garden of Eden,

one of the largest and rarest private

banana collections in the world.

[Vinod, in Malayalam] I have collected

around 520 varieties of bananas.

The groups in Kerala who were responsible

for protecting banana varieties

did not do their job.

[speaks Malayalam]

[Vinod] This made me

want to take action.

That is how I ended up

collecting so many varieties.

[Abaneesh] We had little

support when we first started.

And people think it's unusual

that I'm helping my father.

I have a master's

degree in engineering.

So, they assumed I

was crazy as well.

But we are doing something that

no one else in the world is doing.

[Vinod] Farmers often avoid

cultivating banana varieties that

yield smaller clusters of fruit

because their primary motivation

is to generate profit.

I do things differently.

Wherever there is

banana, I will be there.

[Redzepi, in English] For

Vinod and his son Abaneesh,

every day is centered

around the banana.

They're not alone.

Communities across the world

have been built around the fruit.

[Elizabeth, in Spanish] I started working

with bananas when I was 15 years old.

All my life has been here

in the Zona Bananera.

We all depend on bananas.

Kids, I love you. Take

care of yourselves.

[engine starts]

Bye!

We, the cleaners, take the

bunches and do the clusters.

There are clusters of four,

six, seven, and eight.

The crown must be very square

because what is sold

is only the look.

As the saying goes, you have to put

makeup on the banana for it to be bought.

I can't tell you how

many clusters I clean.

A lot. More than 3,000 a day.

Every pallet carries

between 48 and 56 boxes.

Each box carries from

17 to 20 clusters.

It's a huge amount.

[Redzepi, in English] Plantations,

like this one in Colombia,

grow exclusively one

banana, the Cavendish.

The one we all know and love.

The Cavendish has

been there for me

in more times and in more

places than I can count:

on a grueling ferry to Germany,

an endless flight to Australia,

after countless workouts and

hikes and long bike rides.

I've seen them in every airport

and convenience store in the world.

I've had banana

sliced over pancakes,

dipped in chocolate,

flambéed with booze, washed

down with a hot cup of coffee.

We keep our kitchen at noma stocked at

all times with a mountain of bananas.

Without the Cavendish,

I'm not sure we'd get through

prep for dinner service.

And I'm sure it's been

there for you too.

But with so many different

kinds of banana in the world,

how did this one variety come

to dominate Latin America,

our grocery stores

and our cereal bowls?

The recipe for banana dominance

begins with one special ingredient,

a man named Minor Cooper Keith.

[ship horn blows]

In 1871, Minor Keith set out to

Costa Rica to find his fortune.

This was the era of the

Rockefellers and Vanderbilts,

Manifest Destiny, the Gold Rush.

A time when western entrepreneurs believed

the world was theirs for the taking.

His plan?

To build a railroad from

San José to the Caribbean

and export Costa Rica's

rich natural resources.

All Keith had to do

was the impossible.

Lay 200 kilometers of train tracks through

one of the densest jungles in the world.

For the next 20 years, he

waged a w*r with nature.

As his workers toiled

in the hot sun,

Keith looked for a

cheap way to feed them.

He turned to a

strange local fruit

that was tasty, nutritious

and easy to grow.

Bananas.

All told, more than 5,000 people died

building the Costa Rican railroad.

But planted along those tracks

was the foundation of

Keith's future banana empire.

In India, it's said that if you grow

bananas, you will never go hungry.

[farmers chattering]

[Abaneesh, in Malayalam]

The banana tree is unique

in that all parts

of it are edible.

Every part of the banana tree is

useful, from its leaves to its roots.

[grunts]

Now cut the stem.

- Don't forget to clean it.

- [speaks Malayalam]

[mutters]

[Redzepi, in English] Bananas

in this part of the world

aren't just for

quick, easy snacking.

They're used as an ingredient in

an incredible variety of recipes.

Spices bloomed in

clarified butter,

dried chilies,

curry leaves.

These types of bold flavors aren't

ones I normally associated with banana.

Even the flower,

I had no idea that you could

transform a banana flower

the way cooks do here.

Pickled stems,

shredded peels,

leaves used both for

cooking and for serving.

Every part of the banana

has a place in the kitchen.

In the magic hands of

local cooks like Vijaya,

India's abundance of bananas

can be transformed into

flavors and textures

many of us never thought

possible with the fruit.

But even here, in a world

of dizzying diversity,

India's commercial

banana farmers

are focusing on the more

profitable export-friendly bananas,

like the high-yielding,

slow-ripening Cavendish.

This makes the work done by the father

and son team all the more vital.

With their collection,

Vinod and Abaneesh

are among the last lines of

defense against a one-banana world.

[Abaneesh, in Malayalam] Because

we cultivate a lot of varieties,

the maintenance required

for each variety is unique.

Each variety requires

individual attention.

The workload is quite heavy.

Right now, I am doing

all the work alone.

My father had a heart

issue two months back

and had to undergo surgery.

And if I were to leave,

there would be no one to tend to

the farm and care for my father.

So, that leaves me with no

option except to stay here.

[Vinod] There is a possibility that

my son may choose a different path.

How can I predict the future?

This is considered an offering.

We do it for a good future.

I pray for my father's good health

and a prosperous future for myself.

The world in front

of me is huge.

I have the opportunity to take

a different path if I so desire.

But I'm more concerned

about what will happen next.

[Redzepi, in English] Though

bananas have been central

to India's existence

for millennia

[presenter 1] Where

do bananas come from?

back in Minor Keith's day,

most of the Western world

had never laid eyes on one.

[presenter 2] The captain

of the ship had to explain

how to peel these strange fruit.

Even then, some of the kids didn't

seem to know how to eat them.

[Redzepi] How do you

take a tropical fruit,

that most people had

never seen before,

and turn it into a staple

of the global diet?

By unleashing the kind of marketing

campaign the world had never seen.

One that rippled through

Western culture for decades.

[presenter 3] If you

feel it, peel it.

[Redzepi] And is still

being felt today.

Huh? Banana?

Hey, what the

[Redzepi] Minor Keith's business,

the United Fruit Company,

flooded the market with

newspaper ads, radio jingles,

even a book called The

Food Value of the Banana.

New recipes were invented.

Pamphlets were handed out in classrooms

touting their nutritional benefits.

They turned to doctors,

celebrities and, of course,

a little anthropomorphized

banana to get the message out.

I'm Chiquita banana

And I've come to say ♪

Bananas have to ripen

in a certain way ♪

[Redzepi] The result?

Bananas went from an

obscure jungle fruit

to one of the most popular

items in the Western pantry

in a matter of a few years.

[presenter 4] Bananas are a favorite

breakfast fruit in every home.

[Redzepi] The United Fruit

Company didn't follow the recipe.

They wrote it.

They controlled every

piece of the production,

the land, the workers, the

transportation, the marketing and sales.

They centered their business

around just one variety of banana

to maximize productivity

and keep costs low.

This ushered in a radical new

era in industrialized food.

One that forever changed

how food is grown and sold.

It's one of the reasons

why a fresh banana

can be shipped halfway around the

world to my kitchen in Copenhagen

for a quarter of the cost of

an apple grown down the road.

And as business boomed

for United Fruit,

bananas became vital

to the economies

and daily lives of

millions in Latin America.

[Elizabeth, in Spanish] My whole

family has worked with bananas.

I learned to do this

because of them.

I really like to

cook with bananas.

My eldest son loves stuffed

and regular fried plantains.

With the peel, I

make a delicious jam.

I don't waste anything.

Imagine what someone has

to do with this fruit.

Someone has to remove

the little leaves.

Someone has to clean this plant.

In other words, this plant is

practically someone's child.

I say, "My God, this

banana is beautiful."

Why? Because here, we

do things with love.

None of my children want to

work in the banana field.

It's a tough job.

All jobs are hard.

No job is easy.

If they don't want

to work with bananas

and want to pursue a

career other than bananas,

well, I ask God for a

good life and health.

Because 95% of people in this

area work with the banana.

[child] The food is delicious.

[people chattering]

[Elizabeth] Thank the Lord.

Food is sacred. [Chuckles]

We depend on them for

practically everything.

[Elizabeth] When

you see a banana,

you must realize that behind this

banana there are several families.

[speaking Spanish]

Next time, you already

know what you have to cook.

And if I get tired?

I cook.

- Oh no! It's your turn.

- [child 2] Mm-hmm.

[Elizabeth] It wasn't

just one person.

An entire family did it

because their entire family

depends on that person.

Bananas are everything.

[Redzepi, in English] As the

world was gobbling up bananas,

the Americans in charge of United

Fruit continued to buy up land

and expand production

across Latin America.

The company became so

successful and so powerful

that they redrew the geopolitical

map of the 20th century.

Where do you think the name

banana republic came from?

[chorus] Oh!

[Redzepi] Indigenous

farmers, labor uprisings,

disagreeable politicians.

If there were any obstacle they

couldn't handle themselves,

the United Fruit Company

just called on its friends

in the US government to

protect its interests.

[marching footsteps]

One of the best or

worst examples of this,

1950s Guatemala.

Democratically elected

President Jacobo Árbenz,

looks to reclaim the land and resources

commandeered by the United Fruit Company

- and return it to the people.

- [protesters clamoring]

United Fruit uses its

well-oiled propaganda machine,

the same one that made Chiquita

Banana a household name,

to paint Árbenz as

a Communist threat.

It doesn't take long

before the US government

orchestrates a coup to

overthrow President Árbenz.

[crowd clamoring]

The country descends into decades

of civil w*r and economic collapse,

all for bananas.

Throughout the 20th century,

the United Fruit

Company positions itself

as the center of a proxy

w*r against Communism.

I think I understand something of what

this part of the world means to us.

The Kremlin must hate bananas.

[Redzepi] The messaging was so successful

that bananas became a powerful symbol

of America's most

exportable belief system,

unfettered capitalism.

It's crazy to think that a

fruit could be behind all this.

I didn't believe it myself.

But the scary truth is

that this is just a taste

of what the banana did

to change the world.

Where did that leave the countries

whose survival depended on bananas?

Where does it leave them today?

[reporter 1] A k*ller fungus is

destroying millions of bananas

[reporter 2] Officials in

Colombia confirm a fungus

that decimated banana plantations in

Asia and Australia is now there

[reporter 3] The world's

most popular banana

may be on the verge

of extinction.

[reporter 4] Bananas, as

we know it, may vanish.

[Redzepi] Fusarium is a lethal

fungus for the banana plant.

It lives in the soil,

infecting the roots

and choking the plant

of water and nutrients.

For years, the fungus was

a problem largely contained

to the eastern

part of the world,

chewing through millions of acres

of soil and billions of bananas.

But in 2019,

the first case in Latin America was

detected right here in Colombia,

prompting the government to declare a

state of emergency across the nation.

This is the danger of

building an entire industry

around a single

variety of banana.

With every Cavendish plant

being genetically identical,

the disease spreads rapidly,

wiping out entire plantations.

Worse still, the fungus

contaminates the soil for decades.

Right now, the only thing to

do is to mitigate the spread.

[worker, in Spanish] I work

here in the quarantine area.

An area that is now

affected by fusarium.

I dedicate myself to

my day-to-day work.

If I have to cut, I cut.

If I have to trim, I trim.

If I have to clean

the weeds, I do it.

To treat fusarium,

a person does not need to have

studied, read, or be intelligent.

What one needs is discipline.

Discipline and sanity.

I work here with four

other colleagues.

We haven't been to the main

facility for two years.

Because if we go in and out,

it will spread everywhere.

We are fighting against

something that

it's like throwing

stones into the wind.

Pass me my food.

[all laughing]

[farmer] Every day the same.

Every day.

[Alfonso] I was so fed up with bananas

that I took out the chicken comb to thaw,

and when I saw the cat outside

with it, I said, "son of a"

[all laughing]

Damn bananas, they're

drier than my face.

[laughs]

What do you aspire

to be in the future?

What would be your dream?

[farmer] Being a footballer.

- Hmm?

- [farmer] Play football.

Play football?

And you?

Gutierrez?

Be the Colombian Messi.

Hmm? Play football.

And you, Leonidas?

When I was a kid, I wanted

to be in the military.

Me, in the future I want

God to help me become mayor

of the Zona Bananera to try to fix

the situation in the Zona Bananera

so that there would be more

that there would

be more resources.

To fight the disease.

If it spreads,

the company will end

up closing the farm.

And what are we going to bring

home? What will our children eat?

My God.

Well, guys, let's go.

It's been long enough.

[Redzepi, in English] This banana pandemic

is not simply a recipe gone wrong.

It's what happens when you have

a streamlined one-banana system.

And the worst part is,

it's happened before.

Remember the banana we

saw in every commercial

[cartoon character singing]

United Fruit Company

ad, and vintage recipe?

Well, that banana doesn't

really exist anymore.

It was called the Gros Michel.

And it was the original banana.

The one that made the world fall

in love with this exotic fruit.

That is until the 1950s, when

an earlier strain of fusarium

spawned a pandemic that pushed

it to the edge of extinction.

But United Fruit Company

and the other banana barons

weren't going to let Mother

Nature get in the way.

They'd been searching for

a replacement for years.

One that covered all the

flaws of the Gros Michel.

And they found it in a safer, sturdier,

blander banana: the Cavendish.

New plantations were

erected overnight,

and the rest of us barely

noticed the near disaster.

Now, with fusarium emerging

with a taste for Cavendish,

scientists are once again

racing to develop a solution.

And as more farmers

grow Cavendish,

it's a race against the clock and

this one banana's grip on the world.

Because the irony is,

to save the banana industry,

we need other bananas.

Lots of them.

The key to saving the

Cavendish from fusarium

most likely lies

within the seeds

of one of the 1,500 other varieties

scattered around the globe.

But we can only hope to find the

solution if these bananas survive.

[Vinod, in Malayalam]

I am 62 years old,

and I am uncertain how

much time I have left.

So, to make sure that

the varieties of bananas

I have cultivated will

survive and thrive

I am establishing

"banana villages."

We've selected 200-300

houses in certain villages

and are providing them

with a variety of bananas.

Over time, these households will

share their produce with villagers,

and these banana varieties

will grow far and wide.

[Abaneesh] I learned

everything from my father.

He is my only

support, and I am his.

My father devoted his

entire life, health,

and financial resources

to banana farming.

As his son, it is my

responsibility to protect his farm

and uphold his legacy.

I want to ensure that these varieties

are preserved for the next generation.

[Redzepi, in English] If we want

all bananas to look and taste

and cost the same,

then will we ever stop

fighting fusarium?

And is it a fight

we want to pick?

Because Mother Nature will win.

But if we're okay with our

bananas being short and fat,

long and spotted,

sometimes green

or pink or black,

acidic, sweet or savory.

If we don't mind bananas

being cheap for some,

expensive for others,

then there is

another way forward.

If we combine the best

practices of the banana industry

with the best efforts of champions of

diversity, like Vinod and Abaneesh,

then maybe there's a brighter,

more delicious, more diverse future

for the world's

most popular fruit.