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.
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