Japanese Fruit Company Plays Mozart to Bananas

We really love the Japanese culture, we really do.
Now we learn of a Japanese fruit company that Mozart to its ripening bananas, saying it produces a sweeter banana.

We have wondered all along about  the feelings of fruits and vegetables, and the cruelty of vegetarians who are murdering them.

But it appears there is a a wide variety of food and beverages in Japan that are listening to classical music, including soy sauce, udon noodles, miso and even sake.

Over at Ohara Shuzo brewery, senior managing director, Fumiko Ohara said the classical musical experiment began over 20 years ago when the president, Kosuke Ohara, came across a book about brewing with music.
They tried jazz, Mozart, Bach and Beethoven, but "We found Mozart works best for sake," Mr Ohara said, "and that's why we use only his music."

So, the Mozart-loving bananas are shipped as ordinary unripe fruit from the Philippines,but that's when their journey really begins.
Mozart's String Quartet 17 and Piano Concerto 5 in D major, among other works, play continuously for one week over speakers in their ripening chamber.
The fruit company, Isamu Okuda, said it makes the fruit sweeter.
Who's to argue, because consumers agree - the "Mozart bananas", are sold for $3.60 a bunch and sales are up over last year's non-musical bananas.

Dorothy Retallack, in her 1973 book, "The Sound of Music and Plants says, "After playing various kinds of music to plants for three hours daily, she found they "preferred" soothing classical, which made them flourish. Rock and country, on the other hand, had either a debilitating effect or none at all.

While there are nonbelievers, Hiroko Harada, the manager of Harada konows better.
The yield of her Mozart-infused tomatoes, called Star Drops, says it all.

15 years ago Harada heard about cows whose milk production went up after listening to Mozart. (A farmer in Spain claims his Mozart-listening bovines produce 1 to 6 liters more milk per day than other cows, and a farm in Aichi called Dairy Paradise uses the same method to boost production.)

At the Hiroko Harada farm, speakers are located in nine greenhouses playing Mozart for about 10 hours a day.

Harada says that Star Drops are tastier and sweeter, and according to the Tokushima Kogyou Shikenjyo, a public research institute, they have three times more iron and vitamin C than regular tomatoes, and Harada feels Mozart plays a role.

The Japanese public seem accept the idea that Mozart can improve food and beverages, and the concept of the Mozart Effect, as it impacts on fruits and vegetables seems more popular than ever.

We ran a post July 13, 2009 on the "The Silent Scream of Plants and Vegetables", and it's a related story to the emotions of fruits listening to Mozart.