The fungus that devastates the Cavendish banana has now arrived in Latin America
nationalgeographic.com
The fungus that devastates the Cavendish banana has now arrived in Latin America
1–10 of 193 posts
Re: The fungus that devastates the Cavendish banana has now arrived in Latin America
#2These sentences seemed at odds with one another:
> Banana agriculture is itself partly to blame for the potential of the fungus to spread. Commercial plantations grow almost exclusively one clonal variety, called the Cavendish; these plants’ identical genetics mean they are also identically susceptible to disease.
and then very shortly after saying:
> ... residents of banana-producing nations rely on a multitude of local varieties, including plantains, for their food security. Panama disease TR4 has a notoriously broad host range, meaning it threatens nearly all of these varieties to some degree.
Re: The fungus that devastates the Cavendish banana has now arrived in Latin America
#3These sentences seemed at odds with one another: > Banana agriculture is itself partly to blame for the potential of the fungus to spread. Commercial plantations grow almost exclusively one clonal variety, called the Cavendish; these plants’ identical genetics mean they are also identically susceptible to disease. and then very shortly after saying: > ... residents of banana-producing nations rely on a multitude of l…
Not sure of the specifics here - one reconciliation of the two statements could be, that Cavendish proved to be a good transport vector for this particular strain of fungus to spread rapidly on a global scale, notwithstanding its broad virulence.
Re: The fungus that devastates the Cavendish banana has now arrived in Latin America
#4how will we express the scale of something now?
Re: The fungus that devastates the Cavendish banana has now arrived in Latin America
#5And has been since every 6 months since 2008. Probably even before then, but hn.alogolia.com doesn't go back further.
Re: The fungus that devastates the Cavendish banana has now arrived in Latin America
#6Bananas are the prime cautionary tale against monoculture. The number of native breeds which are now gone for the sake of promotion of one particular breed leads to less resilience against disease and pests. Just in my corner of India, there are various varieties. [1] However, in the U.S., the only variety you often get to see is the insipid Cavendish, whose only merit seems to be shelf-life.
If you travel in the tropics, do try out local varieties. It is an amazing fruit (?).
[1] http://mywordsnthoughts.com/myworld/all-about-kerala/differe...
Re: The fungus that devastates the Cavendish banana has now arrived in Latin America
#7These sentences seemed at odds with one another: > Banana agriculture is itself partly to blame for the potential of the fungus to spread. Commercial plantations grow almost exclusively one clonal variety, called the Cavendish; these plants’ identical genetics mean they are also identically susceptible to disease. and then very shortly after saying: > ... residents of banana-producing nations rely on a multitude of l…
I’d take that to mean that the residents of those countries don’t typically get their bananas from commercial plantations.
Re: The fungus that devastates the Cavendish banana has now arrived in Latin America
#8I find it weird that people would not like other variety of bananas. Like there are generally more than one type of apples, potatoes, onions, tomotoes, and lettuce at most grocery stores.
I would like the choice.
Re: The fungus that devastates the Cavendish banana has now arrived in Latin America
#9There's a GMO variety of the Cavendish that is resistant to the Panama Disease.
https://www.accessscience.com/content/genetic-engineering-of...
Re: The fungus that devastates the Cavendish banana has now arrived in Latin America
#10Since it's inevitable that the current bananas will collapse from this, maybe it'll speed acceptance of GMO products. People will ignore their unfounded fears once it starts affecting them.