But Iceland’s secret to agricultural innovation lies beneath the surface — way beneath.
Since the 1920s, Icelanders have been harnessing geothermal energy to heat their homes. It’s a cheap and effective source of renewable energy, and in the 1940s, Iceland’s agricultural mavericks began looking at how this energy could be pushed further, to heat greenhouses growing vegetables, flowers and, in theory, bananas, which during World War II had become a rare and expensive commodity.
Iceland’s banana plantation sits atop a 5,000 year-old lava field some 27 miles east of Reykjavíc at the Agricultural University of Iceland in Hveragerði, though perhaps the title plantation is slightly grandiose. At around 11,000 square feet in size — less than a quarter the size of a football field — this single greenhouse holds all of Iceland’s banana plants.
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