Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The fungus that devastates the Cavendish banana has now arrived in Latin America

nationalgeographic.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 193 posts

Re: The fungus that devastates the Cavendish banana has now arrived in Latin America

#101

Post by neiman »

disillusioned wrote: post #96

Fun 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…

> Bananas are the most-sold item at most grocery stores and, notably, Wal-Mart.

In which country? The US? This can't be globally true..

Re: The fungus that devastates the Cavendish banana has now arrived in Latin America

#102

Post by chr1 »

ptah wrote: post #93
sn41 wrote: post #6

Bananas 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

They have potential to become the first widely used GMO, as it will be easy to add immunity to this fungus with a small CRISPR edit.

Re: The fungus that devastates the Cavendish banana has now arrived in Latin America

#103

Post by latchkey »

onion2k wrote: post #97
latchkey wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

> 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.

What a great title for a business card. Of course they have every motivation to say that the sky is falling. It attracts attention, doesn't it?

> There's a reason why we get articles catastrophising about the impact of Panama Disease posted to HN on a semi-regular basis.

I'm sure there is a reason, but it may not be what you think it is.

Re: The fungus that devastates the Cavendish banana has now arrived in Latin America

#104

Post by thelittleone »

Bananas are an important staple with many potential uses. A guy in Bali came up with a process that makes flour from green bananas. The resulting bread products are delicious. Far better than regular gluten free bread and better than regular bread for toast (amazing crispiness). Lots of cafes are using this bread to satisfy the ever growing hippie tourism trade.

Re: The fungus that devastates the Cavendish banana has now arrived in Latin America

#105

Post by ptah »

chr1 wrote: post #102
ptah wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

They have potential to become the first widely used GMO, as it will be easy to add immunity to this fungus with a small CRISPR edit.

that edit will have other consequences for the plant as well as there is no gene that specifically controls susceptibility to this fungus

Re: The fungus that devastates the Cavendish banana has now arrived in Latin America

#106

Post by burfog »

anfilt wrote: post #8

I 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.

With most of those, each type has a distinct use.

Granny Smith apples are for baking, McIntosh apples are for eating fresh, Red Delicious apples are for decoration, and the rest serve no purpose.

Russet potatoes are for baking, stew, and fries. Purple potatoes are for frying up with steak. The rest serve no purpose.

It's different with bananas. Cavendish is good. Maybe the Gros Michel is good too, but I wouldn't know. The rest are variations of sour, mushy, slimy, and too tiny. It's also a problem of telling when a banana is ripe. It is easy to memorize exactly how a single variety of banana ripens. If there are more varieties, they get mixed up and eaten at the wrong time.

Re: The fungus that devastates the Cavendish banana has now arrived in Latin America

#107

Post by apexalpha »

neiman wrote: post #101
disillusioned wrote: post #96

Fun 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…

> Bananas are the most-sold item at most grocery stores and, notably, Wal-Mart. In which country? The US? This can't be globally true..

I've heard this about Dutch stores as well. Supermarkets sell banana's at 0% margin or even a loss simply because it lures customers in.

Re: The fungus that devastates the Cavendish banana has now arrived in Latin America

#108

Post by chasil »

latchkey wrote: post #92
onion2k wrote: post #87

Earlier 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…

The original article indicates that most banana strains cannot be mass-marketed:

"Although thousands of banana varieties grow around the world, only a few have the precise characteristics necessary to withstand the rigors of large-scale commercial cultivation, long-distance transport, and international marketing. A banana with those characteristics, a taste and appearance similar to the beloved Cavendish, and resistance to TR4 does not exist."

Re: The fungus that devastates the Cavendish banana has now arrived in Latin America

#109

Post by dragonwriter »

latchkey wrote: post #92
onion2k wrote: post #87

Earlier 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…

> 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.

It's a catastrophic problem for the existing commercial banana industry, not for “all bananas”.

Re: The fungus that devastates the Cavendish banana has now arrived in Latin America

#110

Post by dragonwriter »

onion2k wrote: post #87
latchkey wrote: post #85

Earlier 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…

> What's threatened is the world's supply of Cavendish bananas which is what every Western country imports.

Actually, quite a few Western countries export them. And quite a few Western countries import (or domestically grow and consume) other varieties, though typically in smaller quantities.

Post reply on HN