Happy to start off this panel organized with @dan_deliongreen on “Representation, Power, and Consumer Preferences in the US Banana Industry” #foodstudies20 
Yellow Journalism and the Rise of Yellow Bananas in the 1890s: A Thread. #Cuba, #Spanish-AmericanWar, #redbananas, #GrosMichel, #UnitedFruitCompany #foodstudies20 1/20
In the 1850s, tiny classified ads popped up in East Coast cities like Boston, Philadelphia and New York, such as “Selling off, below cost, prime red and yellow bananas” (Phil. Public Ledger 10 Jun 1858). #foodstudies20 2/20
Spoilage was a big problem since they came by schooner. Americans were likelier to encounter banana first as a flavor for gum drops or hard candies rather than tasting the fruit itself. #foodstudies20 3/20
Bananas were also used early on to make the case for slavery in the tropics: “British West Indian planters, who hoped to stave off the abolition of Slavery, [argued] that one day’s labor in a week” would produce enough bananas to feed a family (cont.) #foodstudies20 4/20
According to these planters and the writers who took their side, “the stimulus of the lash would be needed” to motivate enslaved people, because bananas or plantains would too easily satisfy their hunger (New York Tribune 27 Dec 1855) #foodstudies20 5/20
In the 1870s, bananas started showing up in larger volume, mostly red bananas shipped from Cuba. One sign of their new popularity was an upsurge in jokes about slipping on banana peels. #foodstudies20 6/20
“If you wish to make a quick trip this summer, step on a banana peel” (Wilmington News Journal 6 Aug 1872) or “the reporter sees a banana peel on the church steps and tarries patiently by it till the congregation comes out” (Brooklyn Daily Eagle 16 Oct 1872) #foodstudies20 7/20
Over 400,000 bunches of bananas arrived in New York by schooner in 1873 but about thirty percent spoiled on the way. (Brooklyn Union 14 Jul 1873) #foodstudies20 8/20
In the 1880s market dominance was won by the Gros Michel yellow banana, then known as the Jamaica or Aspinwall banana because it shipped to the US mostly from Jamaica or from Aspinwall/Colón, Panama. #foodstudies20 9/20
Gros Michel bananas were hardier, had more fruit per stem, and offered a better deal for wholesalers. Grocery stores charged a 40-50% premium for red bananas in the 1880s (NYT 8 Apr 1883). In the 1890s, the price for red bananas soared even higher. #foodstudies20 10/20
The sturdy yellow bananas traveled well on new refrigerated steamships, tolerating extended time in cold storage and the extra handling involved in warming and ripening the fruit for market. #GrosMichel #foodstudies20 11/20
The Cuban Revolution broke out in 1895, and major US newspapers made an aggressive case for US intervention against the Spanish colonial regime – the start of “yellow journalism” and one factor leading to the Spanish American War #foodstudies20 12/20
In response to American jingoism, in 1896 the Spanish stopped letting US ships dock in Cuba, and that meant no more red bananas for US consumers until the Spanish American War ended in Dec 1898 #foodstudies20 13/20
At the end of the war, Spain yielded Cuba to US occupation, which lasted till May 1902. That was only a temporary reprieve, since the US soon occupied Cuba again (1906-1908), and never gave up its base at Guantánamo Bay. #foodstudies20 14/20
Cuba’s banana plantations took years to grow back after the war, and in the meantime the United Fruit Company formed from the merger of powerful fruit importers, controlling 75% of the banana trade in 1899 and more every year. #foodstudies20 15/20
The United Fruit Co had no interest in diversity and every interest in controlling every step from plantation to importation and sale. In 1901 O’Henry branded UFC’s dominions “banana republics” (Colombia, Costa Rica, Jamaica, Cuba, Honduras, Dominican Repub) #foodstudies20 16/20
The UFC’s GrosMichel soon became ubiquitous. Still, customers did buy red bananas when they could find them, because they were familiar, delicious, and worked more reliably in established banana recipes. #foodstudies20 17/20
Recipes for fritters, salad, frozen bananas, baked bananas & fried bananas: "The red bananas are best for frying as they are firmer…Peel and cut them in pieces…Drop them in boiling lard. When a light brown put them in a covered collander to drain." (cont.) #foodstudies20 18/20
Sauce: “half a cup of boiling water, half a cup of claret, thicken with cornstarch and sweeten to taste. Serve very hot. Fried bananas is a great dish in New Orleans--they originated with the Creole cooks who serve them w/o breaking” Pittsb. Press 19 Feb 1898 #foodstudies20 19/20
Opportunities to buy red bananas popped up occasionally in the early 20th century, but that mostly just fueled nostalgia for the days when red bananas were easy to find – a nostalgia which erased the war and Cuban people’s suffering from the banana’s history. #foodstudies20 20/20
Image credits: red bananas: Fragmenta Botanica by Baron Nikolaus von Jacquin (1809); yellow journalism cartoon: Leon Barritt for Vim Magazine (29 Jun 1898); fried bananas: Pittsburgh Press (19 Feb 1898); Black workers unloading bananas: Detroit Publishing Co.(1906) #foodstudies20
