Did you know that there are 400 different types of bananas? Well 40% of them are dessert bananas, known as the Cavendish... and those are the ones we see on the grocery store shelves, and that we all love to eat. Bananas vary in their shapes, size, texture, and flavor. Getting to the point of the article -- regardless of the banana's popularity around the world, with an estimated 400 million people depending on it for survival, bananas all over the world, including the Cavendish, could get wiped out and disappear from the shelves of our stores.
Tropical Race 4 (TR4), is one of the biggest worries regarding the end of the bananas. It is a soil-born fungus which causes "Panama disease", making the plant wilt (dried up, loss of water) and will eventually die. Another fungus, called Race 1(R1), also causes Panama disease. This fungus almost wiped out one popular type known as Gros Michael/Big Mike, back in the '50s. After that began, farmers promptly reacted by switching to the Cavendish banana, which we eat today.The only difference between R1 and TR4 is that the R1 mostly threatened only the Big Mike, while the TR4 has the potential to wipe out the Cavendish alongside many other forms of the berry (yes, a banana is a berry... fun fact: a strawberry is not considered a berry, while a banana is!)
Going back to the fungus attack -- it was found and is currently threatening all over Asia, Africa, Australia and the Middle East.
The article I read had a great way of phrasing what the actual issue is:
"Losing out on a banana split wouldn’t be great. If these diseases succeed at wiping out popular types of this fruit, however, many people who live in banana-growing regions might starve " (Stevens).
Scientists are currently trying to quickly react to the spreading disease by developing plants that oppose fungus.
My personal thoughts about this article is that it was very valid and in fact an all around good article, including much background information about bananas and how they affect the daily lives of many humans around the world, as well as what it is that is going on in the world at the moment as bananas are starting to become potentially endangered. This probable effect and disease being spread around the world to our bananas is a big deal, and if it comes to effect our daily lives in the not-too-far future... I frankly won't be too surprised.
I am planning to keep up with this issue and see if anything seriously develops -- we can only hope for the best.
Tropical Race 4 (TR4), is one of the biggest worries regarding the end of the bananas. It is a soil-born fungus which causes "Panama disease", making the plant wilt (dried up, loss of water) and will eventually die. Another fungus, called Race 1(R1), also causes Panama disease. This fungus almost wiped out one popular type known as Gros Michael/Big Mike, back in the '50s. After that began, farmers promptly reacted by switching to the Cavendish banana, which we eat today.The only difference between R1 and TR4 is that the R1 mostly threatened only the Big Mike, while the TR4 has the potential to wipe out the Cavendish alongside many other forms of the berry (yes, a banana is a berry... fun fact: a strawberry is not considered a berry, while a banana is!)
Going back to the fungus attack -- it was found and is currently threatening all over Asia, Africa, Australia and the Middle East.
The article I read had a great way of phrasing what the actual issue is:
"Losing out on a banana split wouldn’t be great. If these diseases succeed at wiping out popular types of this fruit, however, many people who live in banana-growing regions might starve " (Stevens).
Scientists are currently trying to quickly react to the spreading disease by developing plants that oppose fungus.
My personal thoughts about this article is that it was very valid and in fact an all around good article, including much background information about bananas and how they affect the daily lives of many humans around the world, as well as what it is that is going on in the world at the moment as bananas are starting to become potentially endangered. This probable effect and disease being spread around the world to our bananas is a big deal, and if it comes to effect our daily lives in the not-too-far future... I frankly won't be too surprised.
I am planning to keep up with this issue and see if anything seriously develops -- we can only hope for the best.
Pearce Stevens, Alison. "Saving the Banana." Student Science. Society For Science Org., 28 Aug. 2014. Web. 31 Aug. 2014.
https://student.societyforscience.org/article/saving-banana
You have written about a very different topic that concerns many people, and about a topic about what you don't hear everyday. Also I didn't know that we basically depend on a single type of Banana. On the other hand, my question would be where the new fungus came from. Also your fun fact in the middle is quite interesting as I didn't know before that a banana was a berry. Next, it was quite new to me that 400 Million depend strongly on eating bananas, because otherwise they don't have anything else. On the other hand, I don't really like eating Bananas, but you Post was very interesting.
ReplyDeleteI thought your topic was very interesting! What would life be like without a banana? I couldn't imagine it. Bananas are one of the most important food staples across many cultures. I continue to wonder how scientists will solve the fungal issue and if GMO will come into play.
ReplyDelete