I live in bananaland. Quite a few have gone extinct over the decades, actually, mostly unexportable, local varieties.
Up to the mid-1950’s, the banana most popular for export was the above mentioned Gros Michel, or Big Mike. It was said to be fatter, creamier and had a fuller, sweeter, less starchier taste and easier to digest. It was the only banana in the world at the time that could be exported. It became an extremely popular cash crop in the places around the world that it could be grown to the exclusion of almost all other varieties. 50 years ago, we were eating better bananas.
But a fungus, known as Panama Disease, which first appeared in Australia in the late 1800s, changed all that after jumping continents and by the early 1950’s had invaded the world’s commercial banana plantations, leaving no other choice but to burn them down. By 1965, the Big Mike was all but extinct.
The banana industry was in deep crisis, and had to look for alternatives. It settled with the Cavendish cultivar, which was deemed an inferior product but carried the distinction of being immune to the disease. It was quickly adopted by banana growers worldwide and took over 99% of the world market. The Cavendish is the banana you find in your supermarket today.
But a half century later, a mutation of the Panama Disease, Tropical Race 4, is back and not only is the Cavendish not immune, there is no way to stop it.
Specifically, the researchers warn that the strain, which first began wreaking havoc in Southeast Asia some 60 years ago and has more recently spread to other parts of Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Australia, will eventually make its way to Latin America, where the vast majority of the world’s banana exports are still grown. At this point, they say, it’s not a question of whether Tropical Race 4 will infiltrate the mothership of global banana production; it’s a matter of when.
That’s because they have nearly no genetic diversity—the plants are all clones of one another. The Cavendish is a monoculture, which means it’s the only variety that most commercial growers plant every year. Which is also why it is now under threat itself. And once it infects one plant, it can infect them all.
It is the same mistake that caused the Irish potato famine of the 1840’s when over 150,000 Irish died and many times that emigrated to escape starvation, decimating the population of that country. It is the same mistake that caused the extinction of the Gros Michel.
It is estimated that the Millenials may be the last generation to enjoy the banana.
More bad news: The World is Running Out of Chocolate
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