The great banana panic continues

Dan Koeppel really, really likes bananas. A lot.

So much so, in fact, that he wrote a book about it: Banana: The Fate of the Fruit that Changed the World.

In an interview on Fresh Air, Koeppel explained that bananas are facing an epidemic that could, in a matter of decades, wipe out the fruit as we know it. For most of us, this would be a tragedy, considering that Americans eat more bananas per year than apples and oranges combined.

But what's killing them? Koeppel told host Terry Gross that the fruit is being struck by a fungus called Panama Disease, which is incurable and has been known to wipe out banana plantations in a few years. Unfortunately, the bananas that are falling susceptible to the disease are ones that were previously thought to be resistant. Oops.

The main reason that bananas are falling prey, Koeppel says, is because the cavendish bananas that are eaten in America, China, and Europe are essentially clones of one another. Each banana is genetically identical to the one next to it, so if a disease strikes one, it strikes them all.








So in order to combat this vulnerability, farmers are spraying their plantations with chemicals, and experimenting with genetic modification (GM) to develop more resistant strains of the fruit. For instance, they're crossing one banana with another, or using attributes from veggies like radishes, which have shown to be extremely resistant to diseases.

But what about organic bananas? Surely, they provide a safe alternative to regular cavendish bananas. Well, not according to Koeppel. He claims that there is not enough land worldwide to devote to growing organic bananas in order to make them a practical replacement for regular ones. In order to fight diseases, they must be grown at cooler temps and higher altitudes, and there are not enough locations hospitable to organic farming to make them a viable replacement for regular bananas.

The interview is worth listening to; Koeppel and Gross discuss the banana's history, the different types, and banana traits that differ from country to country. But enjoy that fruit with your cereal while you can - pretty soon, it may be extinct.

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