Part III: The American Palate

The United States of America imports the most bananas out of all the countries in the world. Therefore, the US market has major influence. The majority of Americans eat one species of banana, one out of over 1,200 species (Timmerman). This creates a problematic farming industry. Some may say that this problem falls back solely on the companies, but it really falls back on Americans and their palate.

Banana consumers are accustomed to a single type of banana, meaning this species is over grown and over harvested. Recently, this has begun to cause even more problem in the industry than normal. Not only is the land overworked, but bananas have started to become diseased due to these poor farming practices. Americans are known to be very picky consumers in the world market. This means that even of the one species we eat, about 15 percent are not shipped to the US because they aren't the American idea of what a banana should look like (Timmerman). If the American palate would expand, letting in the idea of trying things that we might not be accustomed to, it would help the industry tremendously.  Companies won't change what they provide, until we change what we want. And for now, Americans want the bright yellow, soft, semi-sweet banana they have been getting for a multitude of years.