A Fungus Is Destroying All of Our Bananas [Bananas]

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

There are a thousand forms of bananas on the earth but just one represents 99% of the banana export market. That’d be the Cavendish banana. Cavendish bananas dominate the export market because they give farmers ” with a high yield of palatable fruit that could 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 full 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 everywhere calling it the ” HIV of banana plantations” .

The funny thing is the Cavendish banana actually replaced another banana (Gros Michel) within 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 try to save our banana population. Let’s hope they succeed. Read the total story at the New Yorker [ New Yorker ]

Image Credit: Ian Ransley

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This post is tagged: banana plantations, cavendish banana, central america, disease history, time scientists