Bananas

6 Stories

They Flew Across the World on a Failed Quest for a Banana

Inside the search for the Cavendish banana's successor

(Newser) - The Cavendish banana—that's the kind sitting in your kitchen right now—is "almost perfect," a scientist with Dole Food Co. tells the Wall Street Journal . Well, "laments," is the word the paper uses. That's because, as has been reported for the past couple...

One of Our Favorite Fruits Looks Doomed

A lethal fungus jumped continents in 2013 and is on a global rampage

(Newser) - If you like bananas, it's time to start savoring them while you still can. A deadly fungus that's been killing the plant since the 1960s has jumped continents, moving from where it ravaged crops for decades in Southeast Asia to parts of South Asia, Australia, the Middle East,...

Grocery Workers Open Banana Crates, Find Cocaine

From Colombia with, uh, oops

(Newser) - Police in Germany say they have seized a large haul of cocaine after smugglers apparently made a mistake that sent the drug to supermarkets. Workers at five stores in and around Berlin were surprised to find cocaine packed into crates of bananas on Monday—a total of about 310 pounds....

Deadly Spiders Hatch Out of Grocery-Store Bananas

Supermarket has to pay $4.5K for fumigation, hotel costs

(Newser) - Yes, we have no bananas today ... because they're full of deadly South American spiders. A family in London was forced to flee its home after spiders began to hatch out of the Colombian fair-trade bananas it had bought from a supermarket chain. Consi Taylor had already eaten half the...

Fad Banana Diet Finds Mass A Peel in Japan

Regimen claims to fuel weight loss with just banana, water for breakfast

(Newser) - A penchant for fad dieting is making Japanese consumers ripe for a new weight-loss scheme starring bananas, Time reports. Since a popular actress lost 26 pounds on the Morning Banana Diet, the fruit has been hard to come by. “There are no bananas on the shelves,” complained one...

Terrorism Probe Focuses on Chertoff Advice

Chiquita, now under investigation, sought counsel, got nowhere

(Newser) - Chiquita is under investigation for supporting terrorism, but the company lays the blame on Michael Chertoff. In 2003, Chiquita met with Chertoff, then assistant AG, and admitted to paying protection money to a Colombian paramilitary force on the US list of terror groups. Chiquita's lawyers say they sought advice, the...

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