frogblog

Celsias examines the possibility that one of the world’s most popular foods, bananas, could become extinct.  It seems that more than 300 varieties of bananas have slowly been whittled down by world markets to just one; the uniformly familiar yellow ones we see in our supermarkets which go by the name of Cavendish.  Now the Cavendishs are threatened by a disease and they no longer have the genetic diversity they need to survive this blight.

This stress on the banana population poses a major threat in Africa where 20 million people depend on bananas as their main food staple. And although they are growing different types of bananas, the uniformity of so much of the crop has made all banana crops susceptible to increased disease.

Celsias outlines the options we have to save the banana from an epidemic, before settling on the need for us to collectively support a more genetically diverse banana population. But, are we willing to make the consumer choices to let this happen? As Dan Koppel says:

How much time is left for the Cavendish? Some scientists say five years; some say 10. Others hold out hope that it will be much longer. Aguilar has his own particular worst-case scenario, his own nightmare. What happens, he says, with a very intent look, is that Panama disease comes before we have a good replacement. What happens then, he says, nearly shuddering in the shade of a towering banana plant, is that people change. To apples.

Photo credit: Brenda Anderson at Flickr

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