Bananas, and Other Ugly Supply Chains

Tamara Masri
Sep 5, 2018 · 3 min read

What we learned from Never Out of Season” by Robert Dunn (2017).

Ever wonder what an ecologist’s take is on the future of our global food supply? We read Rob Dunn’s Never Out of Season: How Having the Food We Want When We Want It Threatens Our Food Supply and Our Future (2017). To help us navigate our Supply Chain journey, here are three things we learned from the book:

There are about 300,000 edible crops. We only eat about 12 of them.

Nowadays we only eat a few species of crops, but that wasn’t always the case. The ones we depend on most are rice, wheat, sugar and corn, and the choice is no accident.

“Globally, we favor the crops that best satisfy our ancient needs at the lowest cost, regardless of how far they might have to travel and regardless of the season.”

When it comes to short-term economics, choosing a handful of cash crops to eat from makes perfect sense. But if you are think about the health of our bodies, the stability of nations, and the future of our planet: it’s a disaster. Although we are all bound by our given industrial supply chain, we could diversify our planet’s landscape if we were to diversify our plates. For more context, check out National Geographic’s graphs on What the World Eats.

2. The food on your plate is influenced by the choice of a single Spanish conquistador.

If it wasn’t for one Spanish colonizer, termites and algae might have become the go-to side dish for dinner. They were popular staples way back when Franisco Pizzaro invaded the Inca Empire. Part of Pizzaro’s job description was to send back edible crops to Spain, but he only sent back the crops that he liked and could survive on ships. Crops like potatoes made the cut, but many other species didn’t make it through the first Miss New Crop Contest. Dunn writes:

“Native Americans consumed frogs, beetles, termite queens, moths, bees, spiders, locusts, worms, mice, ticks, and algae.”

But the conquistador thought these foods were too weird to bring home, so they never made it on our modern plate. Other “normal” root vegetables similar to the potato, like oca, did not make it onto the ship for reasons we still don’t know. Hence, you may have never heard of oca, but you sure know the potato.

3. Wild nature will save us…

When monocultures take over the Earth, not only is our food supply at risk but so are the people at all ends of the supply chain. For example, almost all bananas in supermarkets are pretty much clones and are genetically identical. The sudden desire for the banana in the West led to the creation of Banana Republics in the South, leading to atrocities overseen by the United Fruit Company in Colombia, and then later in Guatemala.

The solution to stopping the impending doom is the preservation of the wild, of genetic diversity, and the study of ecology. “In order to avoid the worst of the flood, we need large teams who know the species around us, be they crop, foe, or friend.” Preserving and planting ancient seeds we once ate is essential. Today, one ancient grain from rescued from war-torn Syria could save America’s tired wheat.

Check out Never Out of Season for yourself here.


Originally published at www.hermanns.com on September 5, 2018.

HERMANN’S

For the good future of food.

Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade