Fun fact - bananas are berries.
Strange times for Berry Club. https://www.mrlovenstein.com/comic/643
The fungus that devastates the Cavendish banana has now arrived in Latin America
21–30 of 193 posts
Re: The fungus that devastates the Cavendish banana has now arrived in Latin America
#22What’s most scary is this. If the food can still be produced in a climate we have injured, will it even be nutritious? The answer is unfortunately no in most cases. Over farming leads to soil being turned over too much and plants that do not produce fruits and vegetables with vitamins. Another bad finding is high atmospheric carbon levels drive rice malnutrition. If rice then what else? And now a worsening climate is leading to plant extinction also. This is double bad news.
Re: The fungus that devastates the Cavendish banana has now arrived in Latin America
#23I 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.
I do see other types of bananas for sale occasionally. Little cluster types and the big plantains for cooking.
Re: The fungus that devastates the Cavendish banana has now arrived in Latin America
#24> Desperate, the predecessors of Chiquita and Dole switched production [from the Gros Michel] to a banana they knew to be resistant to Panama disease, despite its relatively bland flavor: the now-ubiquitous Cavendish. I want to try the Gros Michel. What I'm eating is relatively bland?
It might be urban legend, but apparently banana-flavored candy imitates the flavor of the Gros Michel, which is why it doesn’t really taste like a “banana” as we know it.
Re: The fungus that devastates the Cavendish banana has now arrived in Latin America
#25> Desperate, the predecessors of Chiquita and Dole switched production [from the Gros Michel] to a banana they knew to be resistant to Panama disease, despite its relatively bland flavor: the now-ubiquitous Cavendish. I want to try the Gros Michel. What I'm eating is relatively bland?
A much repeated myth regarding the Gros Michel is the reason that artificial banana flavoring tastes so "strong" to the point of being "obviously fake" to modern consumers is its basis on the flavor of Gros Michel, vs the much milder Cavendish they are accustomed to. This is apparently just a myth, but regardless I guess some say Cavendish tastes like artificial banana.
http://hoaxes.org/weblog/comments/was_artificial_banana_flav...
Re: The fungus that devastates the Cavendish banana has now arrived in Latin America
#26Bananas 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 tro…
I currently live in Vietnam, but was recently traveling around Laos by motorbike. The bananas there are almost inedible... they taste awful. I found it fascinating how different they were compared with Vietnamese bananas. That said, I saw huge fields of farmed trees literally everywhere there (as well as in VN). I don't think they are in any real danger of disappearing like these articles say. It is very sensationali…
Are you sure they weren't cooking bananas (plantains)?
Re: The fungus that devastates the Cavendish banana has now arrived in Latin America
#27Bananas 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 tro…
I currently live in Vietnam, but was recently traveling around Laos by motorbike. The bananas there are almost inedible... they taste awful. I found it fascinating how different they were compared with Vietnamese bananas. That said, I saw huge fields of farmed trees literally everywhere there (as well as in VN). I don't think they are in any real danger of disappearing like these articles say. It is very sensationali…
Interesting, I was just going to say how varied and incredibly tasty the local Lao bananas are. I wonder if we have different taste or you've tried different ones than I have.
The ones I like best are the very small "good smelling bananas" (ກ້ວຍຫອມ).
Re: The fungus that devastates the Cavendish banana has now arrived in Latin America
#28> Other scientists—most notably, James Dale of the Queensland University of Technology in Australia—are testing genetically modified disease-resistant Cavendish bananas, but public acceptance of GMOs could prove a significant obstacle to their widespread adoption.
This is the problem right here. The lack of science education. A banana modified in a lab and one that is bred through selective breeding are both "GMO", it's just that one is done in a targeted manner and the other relies on random luck in the mutations.
If people weren't so afraid of science this problem would already be solved.
The two main producers refuse to even consider the "GMO" bananas because they are afraid they won't sell. If they would just take up the cause, they could put enough money behind this to solve the problem in a year.
Re: The fungus that devastates the Cavendish banana has now arrived in Latin America
#29I 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.
They do. Go to any supermarket in Brazil and there will be several different varieties of bananas, see [1] for the main 5 types. There, having just one would seem as understocked as an American supermarket with just one type of apple.
But they're grown nearby and can ripen very quickly. When they need to be transported between continents, I think that's what Cavendish is best-suited for.
Also to be honest, the difference in taste between the different types is a lot less than between types of apples or types of greens, in my opinion. The smaller ones can be sweeter and have more banana flavor... but it's not a huge difference.
[1] https://www.mundoecologia.com.br/wp-content/gallery/tipos-de...
Re: The fungus that devastates the Cavendish banana has now arrived in Latin America
#30> the epicenter of the global banana export industry
Sigh.