Slashdot Mirror
Bye Bye Bananas — the Return of Panama Disease
Ant sends in a disturbing report in The Scientist on an imminent threat to worldwide banana production. "The banana we eat today is not the one your grandparents ate. That one — known as the Gros Michel — was, by all accounts, bigger, tastier, and hardier than the variety we know and love, which is called the Cavendish. The unavailability of the Gros Michel is easily explained: it is virtually extinct. Introduced to our hemisphere in the late 19th century, the Gros Michel was almost immediately hit by a blight that wiped it out by 1960. The Cavendish was adopted at the last minute by the big banana companies — Chiquita and Dole — because it was resistant to that blight, a fungus known as Panama disease... [Now] Panama disease — or Fusarium wilt of banana — is back, and the Cavendish does not appear to be safe from this new strain, which appeared two decades ago in Malaysia, spread slowly at first, but is now moving at a geometrically quicker pace. There is no cure, and nearly every banana scientist says that though Panama disease has yet to hit the banana crops of Latin America, which feed our hemisphere, the question is not if this will happen, but when. Even worse, the malady has the potential to spread to dozens of other banana varieties, including African bananas, the primary source of nutrition for millions..."
Will this finally be the end of "Peanut Butter Jelly Time"?
Slow news day? I think any story about a major threat to our food supply to be a major one, plus it mentions "Banana Scientists"! What is there not to love?
Georgia Tech, the leader in Chia(tm) technology.
think of the monkeys !
--- Back to the trees, back to the trees !
Technically, that was worth a thousand words.
"There is no cure, and nearly every banana scientist says..."
Anyone else burst out laughing after reading the title of banana scientist? This picture came to mind...
http://www.zenbutoh.com/charactergallery/images/gorilla-bananas.jpg
In other news, there's a Banana.com.
Dewey, you fool! Your decimal system has played right into my hands!
From what I can tell from watching my wife buy melons and tasting the result, the technique is to hit them with the flat of your hand, listen to the sound they make, and then after doing this to about a dozen, choose one completely at random and hope for the best.
If you mod me Overrated, you are admitting that you have no penis.