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A fungus know as Tropical Race 4 may wipe out ALL bananas on the planet.

by Joe Mobley
9 replies
  • OFF TOPIC
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Now, half a century later, a new strain of the disease is threatening the existence of the Cavendish, the banana that replaced the Gros Michel as the world's top banana export, representing 99 percent of the market, along with a number of banana varieties produced and eaten locally around the world.

And there is no known way to stop it--or even contain it.
An interesting read.

Bye, bye, bananas - The Washington Post


Joe Mobley
  • Profile picture of the author lanfear63
    Originally Posted by Joe Mobley View Post

    An interesting read.

    Bye, bye, bananas - The Washington Post


    Joe Mobley
    Link from the same article, Running out of chocolate too.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...-of-chocolate/
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    • Profile picture of the author sbucciarel
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      Originally Posted by lanfear63 View Post

      Link from the same article, Running out of chocolate too.

      https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...-of-chocolate/
      So there goes the chocolate covered bananas. Oh well.

      Lived in Hawaii (Big Island) for 4 1/2 years. Bananas grew wild there. This is the way we gathered bananas and they are the only bananas I've eaten that I like.



      We just went out in the wild and cut down a banana tree and brought the bunch home and hung it on our porch. They don't all ripen at the same time. You have to cut the tree down so another will grow. It's as easy as cutting a large reed.
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      • Profile picture of the author Princess Balestra
        I am so glad bananas don't jus' hang offa their trees like grapes.

        They got a cool kinda pride to defy gravity an' turn their growth into a stunt.

        Gotta figure they are better positioned to resist some stoopid fungus than, say, frickin' apples or useless pears.

        Those guys are jus' hangin' around waitin' to be infected.

        Bananas are fighters.

        They are gonna win.
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        Lightin' fuses is for blowin' stuff togethah.

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  • Profile picture of the author yukon
    Banned
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    • Profile picture of the author lanfear63
      It's Bananaman from the League of Psychic Super Hero's.

      I thought he'd split from them?
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      • Profile picture of the author bizgrower
        Originally Posted by lanfear63 View Post

        Link from the same article, Running out of chocolate too.

        https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...-of-chocolate/
        Originally Posted by lanfear63 View Post

        It's Bananaman from the League of Psychic Super Hero's.

        I thought he'd split from them?
        He did, but it was not voluntary.

        They caught wind of his Circumference Doom movies
        and deemed he was not suitable for their Sundae shows.
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        "If you think you're the smartest person in the room, then you're probably in the wrong room."

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  • Profile picture of the author Princess Balestra
    Hands off our bananas, you evil fungus.
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    Lightin' fuses is for blowin' stuff togethah.

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  • Profile picture of the author sbucciarel
    Banned
    Well, perhaps they'll have to change the way they grow bananas.

    The reason the original disease and its latest permutation are so threatening to bananas is largely a result of the way in which we have cultivated the fruit. While dozens of different varieties are grown around the world, often in close proximity to one another, commercially produced bananas are all the same (quite literally in fact, because they are effectively clones of each other).
    This helps companies like Dole and Chiquita control for consistency and produce massive amounts of bananas on the cheap without having to deal with imperfections (it's the reason why the fruit is so easy to find at supermarkets everywhere). But it also makes their bananas incredibly vulnerable to attacks from pests and disease. When you get rid of variety entirely, you risk exposing a crop to something it can neither cope with nor evolve to defend itself against.
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    • Profile picture of the author Princess Balestra
      You can get purple potatoes an' carrots, prolly thanks to some beetroot interbreedin' back in Tuber Prehistory, but no one buys 'em 'cos they look weird.

      Yeah, jus' when you thought the natural world couldn't get more shockin' — BLAMMO!
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      Lightin' fuses is for blowin' stuff togethah.

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