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Should you prepare to buy your last bunch of bananas? According to a recent story in The New Yorker, the answer may be yes. The problem (which has also been deftly reported by writer Craig Canine, in Gourmet magazine and in an award-winning 2005 story for Smithsonian), is that growers have been relying on a single variety, the Cavendish and its genetic clones. What happens when you have a crop without genetic diversity? A disease, such as fungus Tropical Race Four, which is now running rampant, can take down an entire fruit. It wouldn't be the first time.
The Cavendish became popular with good reason: "They are the only variety that provides farmers with a high yield of palatable fruit that can endure overseas trips without ripening too quickly or bruising too easily," says New Yorker writer Mike Peed. Canine, who visited a Belgian lab that houses the world's largest collection of banana varieties, tasted some of the varieties that may one day replace the Cavendish, including the Yangambi Km5, which just so happens to be hundreds of years old. "When I tasted it, I imagined I was tasting the future," Canine wrote.
So will we be eating the Yangambi 5 on our Corn Flakes in a few years?
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EPIC FAIL
1-04-2011 @5:19PM Al Schrader said... I'm a farmer. There are a hundred plus varieties of banana. No fungus among us....Al-
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1-04-2011 @5:23PM Is that a Banana said... I wish the Hawaiian Apple Banana was more widely distributed (translation: outside Hawaii). They are TASTY, extra sweet and extra banana flavour.
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1-20-2011 @12:21AM Jenn said... Tried it for the first time last month. It is better than regular bananas and I don't know why they don't have them available elsewhere. It doesn't ripen as quick either. Was waiting for the article to say, Apple Bananas are the answer!
1-27-2011 @12:44AM Myron Blazek said... Yes the apple banana is tasty, yet the plants themselves are invasive weeds in east Hawaii and are hard to be rid of. The trees are very tall (30+ feet) forming huge stands.
MRB
1-04-2011 @6:31PM Bruce said... Sounds like they are looking for a way to send the price of bananas skyrocketing. So typical
of big business.
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1-25-2011 @5:37PM Dalt said... Yeah, how dare they develop farms and distribution networks and markets giving jobs to thousands and expect US to PAY THEM for their work? The government should DO something about these big businesses
1-04-2011 @6:44PM Ed said... There are lots of banana varieties but no variety as commercially viable as the Cavendish. The fungus disease, of interest, is a problem but there are many agricultural fungicides which will minimize the damage the fungus does. Nothing new ... the banana companies have been using fungicides on babanas for decades.
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1-20-2011 @7:16PM Matt Horns said... Using the same biocide for an extended length of time ALWAYS results in poison-resistant pests.
1-04-2011 @8:50PM merrio fryman said... I have a queston. What happens to one who eats these fungus bananas, do we get a fungus
infection? I have wondered where I got a fungus infection.
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1-05-2011 @8:17AM LinC said... The fungus kills the whole banana plant so no bananas are produced. No chance of you ever eating a spoiled banana. You got your fungus infection by walking around barefood at the gym.
1-04-2011 @9:48PM john said... WTF?
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1-04-2011 @11:03PM Rooster said... This isn't new news. I heard about this over three (3) years ago.
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1-04-2011 @11:11PM stampman24 said... Where have AOL reporters been keeping themselves???? This is old
news, am glad to read the newer comments from readers. Of course,
we like to have the news, but tell your people to stop trying to come up
with 'astounding news' and just give us the really real time scoops...
not this ole yesterdays happenings...very disconcerting !!!! ACK ! ! !
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1-04-2011 @11:12PM Jack said... This development is nothing new. Banana trees get diseases just like any other tree. The banana we are familiar with, is not the common banana from 80 years ago. There was a song, many years ago, called "Yes we have no Banana's". At the time, our Banana's were imported from Cuba and other islands. Those trees became diseased as well and people were forced to find another variety of Banana.
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1-04-2011 @11:56PM Pat said... HUH??? And the relevance is.......................?
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1-05-2011 @1:26AM frank said... Donovan had it right "Electrical banana Is gonna be a sudden craze Electrical banana Is bound to be the very next phase"
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1-05-2011 @6:09AM Casey said... You're an idiot, Sarah. A complete and total idiot.
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1-05-2011 @8:16AM LinC said... Here's another article from Popular Science (2005) about new banana breeds.
http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2005-06/can-fruit-be-saved
What I found interesting is the US has already been through a banana die-off. Back in the 1920's, a completely different banana was in the stores. That variety had a die off, which is where the song "Yes, We Have No Bananas" came from. The Cavendish variety was the (less tasty) replacement. You can tell from the date of the articles that this isn't going to happen suddenly.
Banana die-offs are scarier for Africa, where starchy bananas (think plantains) are a staple food crop.
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1-07-2011 @12:20PM Stewart said... On how many of the world's continents are bananas grown? I can't imagine that the whole lot is going to be wiped out at once....
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9-20-2011 @2:35PM Moodie-1 said... The U.S. used to import most of its supply of Cavendish bananas from Southeast Asia until Tropical Race Four arrived a few years ago and just about wiped out the entire crop from most of the plantations in that area. So now we import them from Central and South America instead. Only time will tell if this area becomes similarly infected. The good news is that there are many varieties of banana. The bad news is that Cavendish bananas are easy to handle and ship so if we have to switch to another variety they probably won't taste quite the same and we'll certainly be paying more for them.