Gone bananas
The differences between conventional and organic bananas
By Kim Carlson
February 27, 2008
Umbra Fisk, the inimitable advice columnist at Grist, recently peeled back the differences between organic and conventionally grown bananas when a curious reader asked why organic bananas seemed smaller and greener than their conventional kin:
When a conventional plant receives synthetic substances targeted at maximum fruit production, and a farmer can apply pesticides whenever a sickly plant (fed on little of substance) starts to lag, the fruit can get quite large. Organic farmers have to pay a bit more attention to the health of the whole farm, the whole plant, and can’t just push plants to the max. As a result the fruit is smaller. I’m not claiming to know much about banana production, but I have seen this effect with other produce. So I think organic bananas may be smaller than conventional bananas because — well, probably because organic banana plants are healthier. Those gigantic bananas to which we are accustomed are just plain old weird.
There’s a lot most of us could learn about this long yellow (or short red) fruit that we take for granted — whether organically or conventionally grown — even though bananas aren’t cultivated much in the continental United States. Wikipedia is a good starting place to learn more, but you might also join us in checking out Banana, a new book on the topic.
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There are 2 comments on this item
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1. by anonymous on Mar 4, 2008 at 8:15 PM PST
Wow, I can’t even believe I read this. I of course want to support organic foods and this is not the issue. The issue is very poor research on this writers part. Organic bananas are smaller because they can only be grown at higher elevations because of fungal pressures. The banana’s biggest enemy are fungal diseases. As for other produce, size has nothing to do with conventional or organic and little or big has nothing to do with a healthy plant. Just because it is organic (or conventional) for that matter certainly doesn’t mean it is a healthy plant. Just as just because it is organic does not mean the farmer has cared for the soil more than a conventional farmer. Shame on you for publishing this. I expected better from this site.
2. by Luis Monge on Apr 15, 2008 at 11:34 PM PDT
Sorry for you two and all other supporting these ideas.
It is not true that organic bananas need to be smaller and/or greener. In fact organic bananas must to comply with the same quality specifications than the conventional ones.
It is not true that organic need to be planted at higher elevations. You said the truth about the fungus, in fact the main sanitary problem for banans is a leaf fungus called Sigatoka, specially the black one caused by a fungus called Mycosphaerela fijiensis. At higher elevations there is (usually) more humidity and then even more fungus diseases for bananas (in the Tropics of course).
Basic point here is:
Organic bananas should look just like the conventional ones, if they don´t it should be because there is so much demand on them that the retailers are not doing a proper ripening process (to sell them faster and because of the short offer). If they are smaller it could be because there is not enough organic bananas to satisfy the demand and maintain the specs.
You can obtain more information on organic bananas at:
www.doleorganic.com
Kind regards,
Luis Monge
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