Real Food Encyclopedia | Banana and Plantain

Because they’ve become so ubiquitous in the United States, it’s easy to forget that bananas (Musa acuminata) are a tropical fruit that aren’t produced in commercially significant quantities in most of the country. While many Americans eat them at breakfast, bananas go with every meal of the day, and, along with their starchier and sturdier relatives plantains (Musa balbisiana), are a cornerstone of tropical cuisines around the world.  

But the low cost and high availability of this fruit reflects some of the food system’s darker history, with the U.S. and other countries toppling governments around Latin America to maintain a cheap supply of the fruit. Even today, banana cultivation is prone to several serious problems, which include low biodiversity and heavy chemical use alongside unresolved labor issues. 

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What to look for when buying bananas

Unless you intend to eat your bananas right away, look for a bunch that is still slightly green and allow them to ripen on your counter. The bananas should be firm, without bruises or black spots. (As they ripen, of course, their skin becomes golden yellow flecked with brown spots.)

Selecting plantains depends on how you’re going to be using them. For tostones, mofongo and other savory applications, you’ll want firm plantains that are still mostly green. To make sweeter dishes like maduros, you’ll need plantains that are softer (but not mushy) with mostly blackened skins.

Sustainability of bananas

Conventionally grown bananas have a large environmental footprint. The majority of banana plantations are monocultures (meaning that only one type of crop is grown in a given area and in the case of bananas, only one variety), which makes them more susceptible to disease (and thus more reliant on pesticides) while drastically reducing natural biodiversity. These plantations can also contribute to deforestation of vulnerable rainforest. 

Historically, the most popular banana variety was the Gros Michel, a sweeter and more flavorful banana than we’re used to today. But the industry’s choice to plant the Gros Michel in giant monocultures made it vulnerable: Panama Disease, a fungal infection, almost completely wiped out the variety in the 1950s, nearly taking the industry with it. Rather than adjusting their cultivation techniques to include more diversity and disease resistance, however, the banana industry today does the same thing with a different variety: the Cavendish banana, which faces a serious threat from new varieties of Panama Disease. 

Maintaining those monocultures requires a huge amount of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides (including insecticides, fungicides and herbicides), which have a negative impact on local wildlife and waterways. Bananas show up at number 30 on the Environmental Working Group’s Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce, which ranks foods by amount of pesticide residues found.

Organically grown bananas don’t come with the same heavy chemical use, though they may still come from large-scale monocultures that are poorly integrated with the surrounding environment.

Labor issues

Historically, bananas have been a big part of the colonial and imperial legacies of the U.S. and other countries, especially in Latin America. Eager to supply consumers in the States with cheap fruit, companies like United Fruit (which later became Chiquita) built enormous plantations in Honduras, Guatemala and elsewhere. They paid workers poorly, exercised a huge influence over local politics and even helped fund coups that kept industry-friendly rulers in power. These countries were termed “banana republics” because of the outsized control fruit companies played on people’s lives. 

Even though the most exploitative practices of the industry have been curbed in recent decades, the industry faces serious labor problems. In 2002, Human Rights Watch documented child labor (which included children being exposed to pesticides) and extreme deterrents to organized labor activities (including retaliation) in one of the largest banana growing areas in the world, Ecuador. (This New York Times article describes child labor in Ecuador in detail.) Twenty years later, the Department of Labor found evidence of child labor not only in Ecuador, but also in the banana industries of Belize, Brazil, Nicaragua and the Philippines. Pesticide exposure is also a major concern among banana plantation workers.

Eating bananas

Storing

Ripen green bananas on the counter. You can store them on the counter once they are yellow — but note that they will continue to ripen, and sometimes quickly, depending on how warm it is. Contrary to popular belief, you can store them in the refrigerator, but only after they have become the exact level of ripeness you want. Sticking them in the fridge will turn their skins black, while maintaining their level of ripeness (the cold slows the process, which is why you don’t want to put a green banana in the fridge).

Keep bananas away from highly perishable fruits and vegetables; they give off high levels of ethylene gas, which can ripening and eventual decay.

You can also use this to your advantage: To ripen a hard avocado overnight, stick it in a paper bag with a ripe banana. The ethylene gas will help ripen the avocado, making it perfectly soft and ready for your next batch of guacamole.

Top photo by LinaVeresk/Twenty20.