During World War II, people ate mock bananas made from parsnips.

World History

I n 1940, as Britain endured the Blitz and struggled under strict food rationing, one unexpected loss loomed large in the national imagination: the banana. When German naval attacks threatened supply routes, the Minister of Food ordered a complete halt to banana imports. For many children, who had grown up with the fruit as a sweet staple, the ban felt especially cruel. Luckily, there was a clever — if somewhat strange — solution.

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By the Numbers

Varieties of bananas that exist

1,000

Approximate year bananas were first cultivated

1000 BCE

Did you know?

The hit song "Yes! We Have No Bananas" grew out of a real banana-killing fungus.

During World War II, when Britain banned banana imports and rationing took hold, the jaunty novelty tune "Yes! We Have No Bananas" enjoyed a surge of popularity. Its cheerful absurdity suited a moment when real bananas were nowhere in sight. But the tune actually dates to 1922 — and may itself have sprung from an earlier banana shortage. According to popular lore, New York songwriters Frank Silver and Irving Cohn wrote the song after stopping at a greengrocery run by a Greek immigrant. When they asked for bananas, the proprietor apologized by saying: "Yes! We have no bananas today." (Reportedly, the greengrocer answered the beginning of all questions with "Yes!") Introduced by Eddie Cantor in the Broadway revue Make It Snappy, the song became a runaway hit, topping the charts for five weeks and later recorded by artists such as the Muppets. The shortage itself was much less fun. The world's preferred banana at the time, the Gros Michel (aka the "Big Mike"), was being ravaged by Panama disease, a soilborne fungus that attacked the plant's roots and quickly spread through genetically identical plantations. From the 1910s through the mid-20th century, the disease devastated Big Mike crops and ultimately ended its use as an export crop. The Cavendish banana eventually replaced the Gros Michel, but it, too, now faces its own fungal threat, Tropical Race 4, a successor strain to the original species behind Panama disease. So while "Yes! We Have No Bananas" began as a joke about a local shortage, its punchline was rooted in a very real agricultural menace — one that continues to haunt banana growers today.