Bye Bye Bananas — the Return of Panama Disease 519
Ant sends in a disturbing report in The Scientist on an imminent threat to worldwide banana production. "The banana we eat today is not the one your grandparents ate. That one — known as the Gros Michel — was, by all accounts, bigger, tastier, and hardier than the variety we know and love, which is called the Cavendish. The unavailability of the Gros Michel is easily explained: it is virtually extinct. Introduced to our hemisphere in the late 19th century, the Gros Michel was almost immediately hit by a blight that wiped it out by 1960. The Cavendish was adopted at the last minute by the big banana companies — Chiquita and Dole — because it was resistant to that blight, a fungus known as Panama disease... [Now] Panama disease — or Fusarium wilt of banana — is back, and the Cavendish does not appear to be safe from this new strain, which appeared two decades ago in Malaysia, spread slowly at first, but is now moving at a geometrically quicker pace. There is no cure, and nearly every banana scientist says that though Panama disease has yet to hit the banana crops of Latin America, which feed our hemisphere, the question is not if this will happen, but when. Even worse, the malady has the potential to spread to dozens of other banana varieties, including African bananas, the primary source of nutrition for millions..."
monoculture is a problem (Score:5, Interesting)
Seriously people? (Score:5, Interesting)
Finally we may get some variety ... (Score:5, Interesting)
Having traveled in some tropical countries, one of the things I most remember about their fruits are the sheer NUMBER of different banana varieties. No monoculture. Your average roadside stand would have half a dozen varieties, and the one a mile down the road would have a few more. Tomorrow the mix would be different. And most of them would taste a lot better than the crap that's so widely available elsewhere!
I for one will welcome our new polycultural bananalords.
Re:monoculture is a problem (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Seriously people? (Score:5, Interesting)
but the only one eaten by americans is the cavendish
When I was in Bali I ate several different varieties of banana, and they were all much more tasty than the "bog-standard" Cavendish. So maybe this isn't such a bad thing after all.
Rich.
Re:monoculture is a problem (Score:5, Interesting)
and they taste like wet paper bags. I haven't eaten a Chiquita in over 10 years, I prefer any other which at least taste like a banana. Chiquitas were only bred for looks.
Re:monoculture is a problem (Score:5, Interesting)
For the most part, they (we?) won't. Most varieties of Banana's are rather small and nasty. They're not the kind of thing your average westerner is likely to enjoy.
On the other hand, assuming they can find a variety of Banana which is easy to cultivate, resistant to this disease, AND tasty, then it'll be a huge boon to their economy. It could do more good for Africa than all the foreign aid of the last three decades combined.
Re:Higher friction on the Gros Michel? (Score:5, Interesting)
Actually, that's a slightly hedged 'yes'.
Grampa's banana had a thicker, more durable skin, in addition to being larger than the bananas we youngun's know so well.
The other reason it's so popular as comic relief is because it actually was a real hazard back around 1915-ish. As a 'portable' fruit, they were handy to carry anywhere, and without streetcorner trash cans, the peels got tossed on the sidewalk as often as not. And considering bananas are (and were) the most popular fruit in the US (almost twice as popular as the good ol' apple), it really was a normal hazard. The Boy Scout handbook of 1914 actually listed removing a banana peel from the sidewalk as a 'good deed', it was that common an occurence.
As a side effect though, it *did* start many cities putting trash cans on busy streets, and enacting littering laws.
There are many kinds of bananas (Score:5, Interesting)
I live in Brazil where there are many types of bananas available. Any supermarket has at least three different types. Just off my head, I can name at least six types of Brazilian bananas: Ouro ("gold"), Prata ("silver"), d'Agua ("water"), Maçã ("apple"), Nanica ("dwarf"), da Terra ("earth").
Re:There are many kinds of bananas (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:monoculture is a problem (Score:5, Interesting)
I find it funny how the wikipedia article on Chiquita just mentions the name change but none of the history it was meant to hide http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiquita_Brands_International [wikipedia.org]
At least now you slashdotters know how the expression banana republic http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_republic [wikipedia.org] came to be. A republic that a criminal banana company would be capable of destroying.
Re:Look on the bright side of... (Score:3, Interesting)
Popular Science article is better (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Fruit considered dangerous (Score:5, Interesting)
Salmonella infects 1 in 20,000 eggs, and generally only if the shell is cracked. For years it was supposed to cause heart disease, onyl for the WHO to establish that the more you eat the longer you live.
Margarine was supposed to be heart healthy and turned out to be the opposite.
Same with vegetable oils, but which cause cancer in lab animals (triggering an attempt to industrially convert polyunsaturates to monounsaturated oils).
I reckon there are two general rules: when is doubt do the opposite of what the experts tell you, and the second to establish what is anthropologically natural to us rather than chasing novel elixirs. After all, you can't be moderate or balanced with poisons (like margarine, a sort of plasticised oil).
Re:Seriously people? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:monoculture is a problem (Score:5, Interesting)
You have a valid point.
It is hard to compare such distinct events. But I would say that the damage caused by Pearl Harbor was "contained", and later "repaired". The US did not suffer that much from that war, and Japan was given conditions to rebuild.
Pearl Harbor did not destroy the US democracy.
The damage caused by the United Fruit Company, to that region (Central America) stability, to those countries democracies is still an issue to this day.
The land that many of those countries tried to nationalize, and died for trying it, is still in the hands of the "United Fruit Company". Now renamed "Chiquita".
The grandchildren of those who died in the 50s, 60s for it, are still workers in that same land, and did not become land-owners.
Those sitting at Chiquita today did not cause the offense. But they still make profits out of it, and the mess caused by that offense perpetuates to this day.
Re:monoculture is a problem (Score:3, Interesting)
Take it out, add some ginger and spices and oil and fry the plantains with some cilantro and coriander.
Voila! You've one of the best south Indian delicacies - plantain curry - which is usually eaten with rice and some sauce/yogurt on the side.
Re:There are many kinds of bananas (Score:3, Interesting)
Growing up in India, I remember all the different varieties and flavors - they came in pink, red, yellow, green, violet/purple etc, and in all shapes and size (ridiculously small ones to *huge* ones). And they all tasted very distinctly different from one another and were quite delicious.
In the US, all fruits taste the same to me, and bananas are so flavorless that I've stopped eating them altogether.
Hell, you even had varieties of plantains that could be used in several spicy dishes, and you used the stem of the banana tree in some dishes, as well. Hard to find anything outside of the mainstream here. And even if you do, it tends to taste hopelessly "factory made".
Re:monoculture is a problem (Score:5, Interesting)
If anyone has tried to grow an apple tree from a seed, they will know that the tree will not produce the same fruit that the seed came from. My apple trees are actually grafted on to quince root stocks. They are self-pollinating and disease resistant. I see no problems in monoculture - the breeders will adapt.
Re:monoculture is a problem (Score:4, Interesting)
On the other hand, you can easily get fair trade biological bananas on the market. They taste better and encourage better ethics.
Recent History: Paying off Terrorists (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:monoculture is a problem (Score:3, Interesting)
In the case you haven't noticed there is a lot more to Slashdot than just US-educated readers.
Chiquitas sell a lot in, for instance, Europe; and I haven't met many Europeans familiar with the actual meaning of "banana republics".
Re:There are many kinds of bananas (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:monoculture is a problem (Score:3, Interesting)
Create alarm, plant GM crops, Profit!!! (Score:5, Interesting)
This "news" has been around for a long time. Even the summary says so. It's an old story: monoculture -> disease -> no more bananas. Unless you have zero knowledge of bananas, you heard about this years ago. [guardian.co.uk] Hmm, I wonder why they'd be raising the alarm now, even when the banana companies like Dole and Chiquita don't care?
Oh, I see. Somebody wants to skirt regulations regarding transgenic crops. "Won't somebody think of the bananas!!" ... Suckers.
Re:monoculture is a problem (Score:3, Interesting)
The "crab apple" is simply an apple that is either not hybridized or if hybridized, selected for its flowering properties. They are often used to pollinate orchard trees. The fruit of the crab apple is often quite flavorful, it's just small and usually not very sweet. They make excellent additions to cider.
All the apple varieties are genetic clones of each other: every Cortland Apple tree comes from cuttings of a single, ancestral Cortland.
The phenomenon you describe is the reason for this. It is also a good illustration of the purpose of sexual reproduction: to increase genetic diversity by shuffling genes. You can try to inbreed genetic lines from McIntosh stock, but most fruit won't be edible, and those that are won't resemble McIntosh apples.
Re:monoculture is a problem (Score:3, Interesting)
Bonita told me it was because they were not being ripened properly in storage (remember, bananas are picked VERY green), which involves keeping them in (ethylene? I forget too) gas at a particular temperature, so they will start to and continue to ripen correctly. If they're just stored in the plain air during the green phase, they will rot instead of ripening.
======
I hadn't realised til I RTFA that the bananas of my childhood were gone... but it does explain the change I noticed starting in the 1960s, where the average banana was smaller and not as good anymore, and the brief period where I consider them edible as-is got even shorter (it had been a couple days, now it's only about 4 hours).
Lest we forget... (Score:2, Interesting)
At the end of the 19th century, with the help of the US government, food companies like Dole and Chiquita helped create and prop up "banana republics" in latin america, which were in fact figurehead dictatorships geared towards producing raw materials and crops for US consumption, like bananas. In fact, before that time, the #1 most popular fruit in the US was the apple, but thanks to these companies, they turned that part of our culture on it's head and created a massive campaign to make the banana #1, using the pricing power of cheap bananas and government influence to steamroll a fruit that was, and still is, produced locally by US farmers.
The reason why they did this is not because bananas are better tasting or better for you, but because they were cheaper than local produce when you factor in highly cheap labor of the impoverished populace and favorable political conditions gained by less than ethical means.
And to be honest, Apples taste better than bananas. An apple is more durable, and can be made into more things, and supports your local economy .
This is absolutely bonkers. My wife's family lives in Wisconsin. You want them to survive on local produce over the winter? You want them to hoard dry goods so they can eat 6 months out of the year? Not to mention the exciting selection of nutritional deficits that most of the world suffered from before cheap year round fresh food selections. Really, this type of judgmental viewpoint bothers me so much. I really see your "EAT THIS WAY OR YOU HAVE A DISEASE!" moralism as no different from right wingers who think homosexuality is a disease.
You'd be surprised the number of vegatables that can be grown late into the fall season. In wisconsin, you don't exactly have to grow the vegetables near Madison, but there are tons of places within the continental US where you can get produce shipped north. You can cross the US from top to bottom by train or 18 wheeler in two days without trying very hard, And we ship things more fragile than fruit by truck these days.
You are taking the metaphor the GP is making way too far. Those who say "homosexuality is a disease" come from an illogical and bigoted stance about the inequality of "races" when in fact there's nothing biological to suggest one "race" is inferior to the other. On the other hand, to play devils advocate, not all fruits are created equal. Also, see my entry above about how the banana became popular by government and big business influence. There's some good reasons why you can be negative about this fruit.
Are you just making this up as you go along? Watching people "line up" for bananas in a supermarket? Food scarcity hasn't exactly been a problem in America in a number of years, I would be very interested in where you've seen people "line up" to get bananas, while bypassing all other fruits.
Food scarcity isn't a problem, but living in the middle and not on the more populated coasts, perhaps you simply don't see that sometimes the bananas on the shelves get sold out and they haven't restocked the shelves yet. I've seen that plenty of times. Then some people have to wait. It particularly happens in less affluent areas with high population density. Doesn't happen every day, but it's simply a matter of shelf space not food scarcity.
Good for you! We should all be more like you, thanks for holding yourself out there as an example of the Right Way to live!
You're welcome. Perhaps I can show you how to live better by trying to reduce your carbon footprint. After all, buying product locally as well as reducing my carbon footprint has positive impacts on my fellow human beings that I should be concerned with. Or would you rather just let your fellow man slip on a banana peel, break his neck, lose his job and his life savings and say "tough shit I don't care about you"?
Re:Lest we forget... (Score:3, Interesting)
I also have to question apples being more durable? Ever been to an apple orchard?
Re:monoculture is a problem (Score:3, Interesting)
Sorry if I seem rude here, but you must not have a very good understanding of your company, or it must be one of the few smaller companies who generally only maintain/propagate existing varieties, or you are being intentionally vague when you say 'bio/ag-tech industry' and don't work in any directly relevant field at all.
Either that or I better tell a bunch of my coworkers that I heard on the internets that their entire international department, dedicated to allelic diversity, does not exist. In that case a bunch of my former coworkers at a previous place of employment will be facing a serious existential crisis as well.