Posted on 05/15/2006 3:09:09 PM PDT by blam
A future with no bananas?
11:00 13 May 2006
From New Scientist Print Edition.
Go bananas while you still can. The world's most popular fruit and the fourth most important food crop of any sort is in deep trouble. Its genetic base, the wild bananas and traditional varieties cultivated in India, has collapsed.
Virtually all bananas traded internationally are of a single variety, the Cavendish, the genetic roots of which lie in India. Three years ago, New Scientist revealed that the world Cavendish crop was threatened by pandemics of diseases such as that caused by the black sigatoka fungus. The main hope for survival of the Cavendish lies in developing new hybrids resistant to the fungus, but this is a difficult and time-consuming task because the seedless modern fruit does not reproduce sexually and has to be bred from cuttings.
Now the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has warned that wild banana species are rapidly going extinct as Indian forests are destroyed, while many traditional farmers' varieties are also disappearing. It could take a global effort to save the bananas' gene pool.
In fact many of the genes that could save the Cavendish may already have been lost, says NeBambi Lutaladio, a plant scientist at the FAO's headquarters in Rome, Italy. One variety that contains genes that resist black sigatoka survives as a single plant in the botanical gardens of Calcutta, he says.
I forsee warehouses full of bananas in all of their golden..uh, yellow and somewhat spotty, ... uh, black and mushy goodness.
the year 2023:
"Mommy what is that yellow pill on my plate?"
"It's your banana pill....back when I was a little girl we used to have real bananas"
"Mommy what is that red pill on my plate?"
"It's your meat pill....back when I was a little girl had used to have real meat"
Could this be the pivotal event that inspires the monkeys to take over, ala "Planet of the Apes"?
1960's
Brilliant minds think alike.
I'm stuned that no one has said that until now.
Well put up a damn greenhouse then and have it colonize other greenhouses.
Why bananas?
• Bananas (including plantain) are the
developing world’s fourth most important
food crop (after rice, wheat and maize) in
terms of gross value of production.
• The crop is grown in 130 countries
throughout the tropics and sub-tropics.
• More than 85% of global banana
production is produced by small-scale
farmers for home consumption or for sale
in local and regional markets.
• Bound for export or local markets, the
banana is an essential source of foreign
exchange, domestic income and means to
alleviate poverty.
• Bananas are used as a staple for 70
million people in Africa.
Bananas are grown in 130 countries? The more involved the UN becomes the deeper it gets its claws into a country. If it could hold some power over the fourth most important foodstuff for developing countries, what havoc it could wreak. The UN food for sex scandals in Africa, come to mind.
Does this mean we can look forward to a future with no Banana Republics?
Urban legend. http://www.snopes.com/food/warnings/bananas.asp
It could very well be there is a crisis. Or maybe not. I wonder if the mothers of those in the scientific community ever read to them as childre "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" and Chicken Little.
As soon as we alter the gene pool some FOOL ELF terrorist will firebomb the university or private lab and try to destroy the work.
I think I'll go have a piece of the wife's chocolate chip/banana bread.
Will this wipe out the banana republics?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.