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Posted on 01/15/2003 4:21:10 PM PST by blam
Bananas may be on the road to extinction
The banana could be on the verge of extinction, claims new research.
Scientists believe the world's most popular fruit could disappear within 10 years, unless it is rescued by biotechnology.
Since edible bananas are sterile mutants, new varieties cannot easily be produced by natural methods.
This leaves the banana open to attack by pests and diseases at plantations and farms in central America, Africa and Asia.
In the 1950s the Gros Michel banana was wiped out by Panama disease, caused by a soil fungus.
Its successor, the Cavendish, is now threatened by a global epidemic of another fungal disease, black Sigatoka.
With nothing readily available to replace the Cavendish, the banana industry has reached crisis point. According to a report in New Scientist magazine today, it could be gone in 10 years.
"In some ways, the banana today resembles the potato before blight brought famine to Ireland a century and a half ago," said the magazine.
The wild banana, a giant jungle fruit called Musa acuminata, contains a mass of hard seeds that make it virtually inedible.
Edible bananas are rare in the wild and have no seeds and are sterile.
Story filed: 21:03 Wednesday 15th January 2003
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FreeRepublic , LLC PO BOX 9771 FRESNO, CA 93794
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That's no bananny... that's my nose?
Yeah, but potato splits are going to be hard to get used to.
It would have to be Joe Walsh.
Be the first one in your area to call in sick with "World-wide Banana Famine."
Wasn't he also a sterile mutant?
Just kidding about this, of course. I love bananas. Be a real loss if they disappear.
That's because you're getting old....and beside that, you've been eating Plantins.
I read one of the label stuck on my banana the other day, it said, "For good health, eat five bananas daily." Five bananas daily?
My banana trees are gonna freeze this weekend, forecast is 27 degrees...Brrrrr.
I read an article recently somewhere, perhaps here, that stated just that. There's a scientist that has an engineered banana tree that's disease resistant and had clearance to test it in Uganda, or some other African nation that needs bananas. However, when the EU got wind of it, they put the kabosh on the field trials, by telling the host government they wouldn't buy any export of any type. Fools.
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