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..."

Comments

Re:out of season

[ionix5891]

doh! in rush to make first post spellcheck turned off again!

BUY not but :)

Re:monoculture is a problem

[ultranova]

The wild banana has genetic variation aplenty, but it's also disgusting.

that's genetic variation to prevent the fruit from being eaten by two-legged straight-walking simians who do not spread the seeds/pollen. :-)

If all the Cavendish bananas are clones of each other, then they must all be clones of some original Cavendish plant, and thus descendants of it. I find it likely that Cavendish banana plants - the descendants of a single banana plant - outnumber all the wild banana plants combined.

Getting domesticated by humans is pretty much the evolutionary equivalent of winning the main prize in lottery.

nationalize = steal

[mosb1000]

For those of you who don't know, nationalize is a codeword that socialists use denote the taking of property by the government. It's similar to emminant domain, except that it is done in the name of "equality and fairness" rather than "the greater good". Of course, in reality it is done as various groups struggle to gain power for their own selfish or egotistical purposes (emminant domain is also usually used in this way).

That's why you should be wary of the new "national health care" craze. Anything that puts more power in the hands of pollitions takes power away from you, even if they say they're taking it from some rich guy or some corporation. Don't trust pollitions who promise easy answeres and unlimited financial or personal security. They will take whatever authority you give them, and they won't deliver on their promises (even if they honestly intend to try).