-Alyssa Harper
Dr. Sara Dustin
ENC1102
4 March 2021
Multimodal Writing: Kiwi Banana Hybrid
The official claim is that gardeners can create any type of hybrid produce by planting two pieces of fruits or vegetables together in one pot. Above, you see a picture of what is called a “baniwi” a banana kiwi hybrid that was claimed to be grown easily in the comfort of your own home. This video surfaced on YouTube back in April of 2014; it has been shared 1,464,208 times, but the video did not become immensely popular until a small segment of it was clipped and put on a famously followed Facebook page called “Foods Around” in March of 2016. In the video, you see the speaker walk the viewers through the process of how to make the hybrid fruits and vegetables; the focus of this video is the banana kiwi fruit, though. They claim that you can make a variety of hybrid fruits and vegetables this way. You simply slice the produce in half, then stick the flesh side of the two different fruits together with some honey or corn syrup; next, you plant it in a pot with soil, water it, and then after a week, the hybrid fruit or vegetable will sprout and bare the new hybrid produce. It is very obviously not a serious video and is a straight-up lie, but it went viral for no reason other than because it looked cool. The science behind it is simple as well; there are some hybrid fruits out there, but they must come from the same species or genus to be successful.
Thousands of videos surface after showing people testing this hybrid produce theory and proving it wrong, and some even used it as April fools’ pranks for their family members. In March of 2016, a popular YouTube channel of a dad and daughter who try the experiment for themselves. You can tell the dad knows it will not work especially because it came out 2 years after the original post, but he is excited to try and prank his daughter. In a google search, you see many posts on these hybrids produce and how they are not working. It is interesting to me that other people used this video to learn how to make products from their scraps; they do things like regrowing celery, onions, scallions, lettuce, and so much more.
In conclusion, social media once again has been a tool used to spread false information and fake news throughout the world. It should have been obvious that this video was a fluke and that hybrid fruit can not be made this way. In the future, it would have taken maybe 3 or 4 minutes to find out that this video was spreading false information. It was funny to watch but should not have been taken seriously.
References:
“How to Make a Banana with a Kiwi Flavor.” YouTube, 1 Apr. 2014, www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rn08tINChA&feature=emb_title.
“Plant and Grow a Banana Kiwi Hybrid.” YouTube, 31 Mar. 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8SsljBLMDw&t=4s.
