Apparently, the bananas we know and love might be on their way out.
I was doing some reading and it looks like they're threatened by disease and the fact that all the bananas in grocery stores are basically all clones of each other meaning one disease can make them all sick due to lack of diversity.
This is important because bananas are one of the world's most important food crops.
Here's some quotes and reading from an
NPR article. It's a little on the older side, but I'd like to know what everything thinks.
Quote:
The emergence of a deadly new fungus, resistant to any existing treatment, has the potential to wipe out the world’s banana plantations.
Known as Panama disease, the pathogen was first identified in the 1990s in Taiwan, and from there it spread to Southeast Asia, China, Malaysia, and parts of Australia, where it has caused extensive damage. Now there is evidence that it is on the move again, and has spread to Jordan and parts of Africa, according a website devoted to Panama Disease.
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Quote:
This latest outbreak has its origins in a similar outbreak in the 1950s when an earlier strain of the Fusarium fungus devastated the banana plantations in Central and South America. At that time, most bananas that were grown were a variety named Gros Michel. As these were wiped out, growers found another variety, called Cavendish, that resisted the fungus, and so that has become the dominant variety.
However, the Cavendish is not resistant to this newest Fusarium strain. If bananas were to disappear, not only would a favorite fruit disappear, but it would threaten the lives of millions of people, not only as a livelihood, but as a major food source.
Over 100 billion bananas are consumed around the world each year. It is the world’s most important food crop behind wheat, rice and corn.
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Anybody have any ideas on alternatives to bananas? Soultions? Any parting words?
Let's not forget their influence on culture as the fruit with the most impact.
disgusting things