Vice: Season 5, Episode 9

5 - 9: Medical Détente & Bananas

There are thousands of types of bananas but Americans have eyes for only one kind - the very marketable yellow Cavendish, which accounts for 95% of global banana exports. But this multi-billion dollar industry is under threat. A fungus called Panama Disease is rapidly infecting portions of the world's Cavendish crops and could spell disaster for the monoculture-dependent worldwide banana trade. VICE heads to the heart of banana country in Latin American and the Philippines to see the devastating effects of the disease and to investigate what the loss of the banana would really mean besides a less colorful lunchbox.