Researchers fear that a fungus could cripple the world's banana monoculture

popsci.com

18 points·kanamekun··7 comments

I believe that we will see a marked decline in the Cavendish varietals because of Race 4. But the upside is that there are so many other delicious banana varieties that are currently excluded from the market place because of the commercially 'perfect' quality of the Cavendish. To me that's like living in a world of only Red Delicious apples.

That being said, managing the fungal infections effectively continues to be an industry priority, as it should be.

Snopes - http://www.snopes.com/food/warnings/bananas.asp

What I find amazing about bananas is nobody really know where they are from or how long they have been cultivated - the best guess is they are from Papua New Guinea and maybe from as far back as 10,000 years ago [0].

[0] http://cwh.ucsc.edu/bananas/Site/Early%20History%20of%20the%...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yes!_We_Have_No_Bananas

Ironically the Cavendish banana was introduced because a previous cultivar was wiped out by this fungus back in the 1950s: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gros_Michel_banana Supposedly it tasted much better...

I don't think it is wiped out as it is still a major export variety for Malaysia and Thailand.

That's correct, it is just rare due to the ubiquity of the fungus, which has spread far and wide and maintains a continuous low level in the former growing environments.

Many of the other cultivars spoil quickly, making them difficult to ship over the ocean, pipe through the distribution system, sit on grocery shelves, then keep fresh for a few days in your home.

If no commercially viable cultivar survives then bananas will become a luxury fruit, flown in on a daily or weekly basis with all the cost increases that implies.

Wow, this sounds like a bigger issue than bunchy top.

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