interesting video illustrating how corporations control US military action
The fungus that devastates the Cavendish banana has now arrived in Latin America
91–100 of 193 posts
Re: The fungus that devastates the Cavendish banana has now arrived in Latin America
#92Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wow, that is a stretch to loop my thinking in with both of those movements. I am not even close to that nonsense. Of course I'm no expert, but this whole banana disappearance story has been going on for many years, yet we still have bananas. There is not even close to a shortage of bananas. It reminds me of the Helium is running out stories. Let me also remind you that the story is talking about a specific strain and…
There is not even close to a shortage of bananas. IANABE (I am not a banana expert) but I know that no one suggested there is a shortage right now. What's threatened is the world's supply of Cavendish bananas which is what every Western country imports. Prior to that everyone ate Gros Michel bananas, but practically all plantations growing that particular crop were wiped out in the space of 30 years by Panama Disease…
> we don't have a suitable replacement
That is your opinion. I've been lucky enough to taste plenty of other banana strains and there are definitely better banana's than Cavendish. The smaller ones that you generally get in this region, that are really ugly on the outside, taste so much better.
> you've seen a few big banana plantations
More than 'a few'... literally 3 whole countries worth. There is absolutely no shortage of trees and farms. Just to give you an idea of how much I've seen and I didn't even tag all of it... https://imgur.com/a/olSoTXe
I'm not saying that this disease isn't a problem, but I have hard time believing it is a catastrophic problem for all bananas.
If you're going to go into big problems, I'd say that African Swine flu is a much larger issue for this region. I drove through countless 'checkpoints' all over northern VN/Laos where they sprayed down my motorbike wheels with some unknown chemicals. There are literally signs everywhere talking about the issue. Millions of swine have been slaughtered. Usually you see pigs running around freely on the roads, but once you get to a certain point in northern vn, you stop seeing them entirely.
Re: The fungus that devastates the Cavendish banana has now arrived in Latin America
#93Bananas 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…
yip, and they are about to become a cautionary tale about GMO it seems.
monoculture was once the height of scientific farming techniques.
unintended consequences seems to be an unknown consequence of scientism, the religious zealotry that some have for science
Re: The fungus that devastates the Cavendish banana has now arrived in Latin America
#94There's a GMO variety of the Cavendish that is resistant to the Panama Disease. https://www.accessscience.com/content/genetic-engineering-of...
The other way of solving this problem would be not to have massive unnatural monoculture plantations. The reason the fungus kills literally all of the Cavendish bananas is every single one has the exact same genetic information. They're all clones. Each shares the exact same set of weaknesses, including this fungus.
The Cavendishes have all been grown in exclusion zones for years, where you have to scrub yourself down to get in.
Re: The fungus that devastates the Cavendish banana has now arrived in Latin America
#95> 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", i…
no one alive today is afraid of science. it's just that unbridled scientism zealotry seems to ignore second order and unintended consequences.
https://medium.com/the-physics-arxiv-blog/genetically-modifi...
Re: The fungus that devastates the Cavendish banana has now arrived in Latin America
#96Fun banana facts:
Bananas are the most-sold item at most grocery stores and, notably, Wal-Mart.
Bananas also have the highest standard deviation in terms of predicting if a given (known) consumer will purchase bananas in a given store run. (At least as compared to other food products and consumables.) When predicting a consumer's shop, it's generally pretty easy to make a highly educated guess about their purchasing activity and, thus, to project volumes for products. But bananas defy that wisdom, except that people in aggregate buy a lot of them. Someone who buys bananas reliably every week for months will randomly stop for months, and then start again, for no perceivable rhyme or reason. Bananas aren't seasonal purchases like berries or corn or other fruits or vegetables. Bananas also tend to be a high purchase at gas stations and convenience stores.
Bananas have to be effectively "tricked" into continuing to ripen after being prematurely picked and then refrigerated for transit. So there are banana ripening centers that pump ethylene through a chilled chamber to get them to ripen.
Re: The fungus that devastates the Cavendish banana has now arrived in Latin America
#97Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is not even close to a shortage of bananas. IANABE (I am not a banana expert) but I know that no one suggested there is a shortage right now. What's threatened is the world's supply of Cavendish bananas which is what every Western country imports. Prior to that everyone ate Gros Michel bananas, but practically all plantations growing that particular crop were wiped out in the space of 30 years by Panama Disease…
> we don't have a suitable replacement That is your opinion. I've been lucky enough to taste plenty of other banana strains and there are definitely better banana's than Cavendish. The smaller ones that you generally get in this region, that are really ugly on the outside, taste so much better. > you've seen a few big banana plantations More than 'a few'... literally 3 whole countries worth. There is absolutely no sh…
That is your opinion.
It's not my opinion. It's the opinion of every banana industry analyst who says losing the Cavendish would be the end of the banana export industry, which is pretty much all of them. There's a reason why we get articles catastrophising about the impact of Panama Disease posted to HN on a semi-regular basis.
Re: The fungus that devastates the Cavendish banana has now arrived in Latin America
#98would it help if banana plantations were not monocultures? would it stop the spread if other trees were in between
Re: The fungus that devastates the Cavendish banana has now arrived in Latin America
#99Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think people are using irrational thought processes to come to nonsensical conclusions. The anti-GMO business is feeling over reason.
Saying that you don't trust a scientist with only a tenuous grasp (because that is all we have) of what nutrition is or should be (and what things might be harmful over 10-30 years) to make grand and sweeping changes to how an organism works is not feeling over reason. It is a different form of risk-management, one that you might not agree with (and that's fine).
I think part of the problem is with what people are assuming.
There is in fact a large, obvious population of people who are emotionally scared of GMOs. Unfortunately, that group has given anybody who question GMOs a bad name.
This kind of thing is unfortunately true for many things in life.
And ironically, if what I am saying is true, it is the grandparent who, while accusing of irrational reasoning, has not reasoned this out.
Re: The fungus that devastates the Cavendish banana has now arrived in Latin America
#100Earlier quoted context omitted.
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).
I found that when you first bite into the outside, it was good, but as you got into the center, it had a very bad taste that ruined the experience of the outside. It was a weird and totally unexpected thing for me since I normally love bananas. I tried stopping at several different vendors (stands) on the roadside to make sure it wasn't just one. I was mostly north of Vientiane, so maybe the southern ones are better.
> it had a very bad taste that ruined the experience of the outside
Maybe you picked a plantain instead a banana. They are big and showy, but unedible unless cooked (or almost rotten)