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Jan 5, 2011

A Fungus Is Destroying The World's Bananas

Tropical Race Four, a soil-born fungus, has been destroying bananas across the world. It kills the plant and makes bananas smell like garbage. That deadly fungus is expected to hit Central America, which is where we get all our bananas from.

There are a thousand types of bananas in the world but only one represents 99% of the banana export market. That'd be the Cavendish banana. Cavendish bananas dominate the export market because they provide farmers "with a high yield of palatable fruit that can endure overseas trip without ripening too quickly or bruising too easily".

One problem, though. By relying solely on the Cavendish banana (and clones of the Cavendish), one disease can wipe out a whole ton o' bananas in one sweeping motion. Tropical Race Four is that disease, and it's already wiped out Cavendish bananas in Asia and Australia with newspapers around the world calling it the "HIV of banana plantations".

The funny thing is the Cavendish banana actually replaced another banana (Gros Michel) in the 1950's because that one got stricken with the Panama disease. History is repeating itself but this time scientists are working feverishly in an attempt to save our banana population. Let's hope they succeed.

23 comments:

Sam said...

They'll succeed, no fungus can obliterate the banana!

Zombie said...

Donkey Kong is gunna be pissed...

Bargain Hunter said...

Wow I never knew there were so many different types of bananas in the world and that we only eat 1 of them!

Choms1337 said...

Oo.. In my shop is only 1 type of banan :D

Toyin O. said...

Thansk for sharing:)

Anonymous said...

I always heard that the banana was going to disappear. I thought it was just a myth... until now.

sknroiws said...

I love bananas this makes me sad

Christian said...

NOOOOOO


-Kersey

SuciƓ Sanchez said...

Would circumcision help?

Mister Sharaf said...

oh no, my bananas

Pawawanpi said...

Bananas are the only fruit I eat... This seriously makes me sad :<

Nokel said...

how odd... I've never heard of any banana crops going bad in australia... and i'm australian

Les said...

@Nokel
What. You don't remember a couple of years ago when the plantations of boned by natural disasters and the price of bananas skyrocketed?

I do, and that sucked. It's going to happen again.

Terminally Ill said...

siq post BRO

You Piss Me Off said...

Anything but the bananas. D:

HiFi said...

Poor Bananas!

Kate said...

the mighty banana will persevere!

erics said...

this is somewhat scary. first the bee epidemic where most of them have disappeared to nowhere, and now this. what will happen to all our organic resources?

systemAdmin said...

Poor bananas. You will be missed.

Sinisa said...

nice...

Anonymous said...

in Australia the banana used to be much better taste and texture wise but that particular type of banana was hard to grow disease free so now we're stuck with inferior products that are easier to mass produce.

MRanthrope said...

we're screwed

Unknown said...

i love bananas :(