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

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

#151

Post by LgWoodenBadger »

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…

From my days working in software for the retail market about 20 years ago, we had to build functionality to allow the exclusion of bananas and milk from our predictive analytics application because EVERYBODY bought them. Probably over 99% of retail grocer transactions contained them.

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

#152

Post by ashtonbaker »

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 aren't seasonal purchases like berries ...

Fun fact, though - bananas ARE berries :)

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

#153

Post by denton-scratch »

icxa wrote: post #36
jedberg wrote: post #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", i…

I'm pretty up to date on the science myself, and I still consider myself anti-GMO for a host of reasons, little to do with the science. My objections are more philosophical. two primary reasons: hubris and greed. The hubris to think we know which varietals are the best and will continue to be the best. We may go all in on one species or variant and then turns out an unknown bacteria we have previously no clue about w…

I choose to avoid GMO products (it's my choice, right?). To do that, I have to be able to distinguish them from non-GMO products. That means labeling; and if GMO promoters are lobbying against labeling (and they are), then I'm against the GMO promoters. Unless GMO products are clearly labeled, I favour a ban on importing them at all.

As far as genetic modification in the lab being indistinguishable from genetic modification the way farmers have always done it (cross-breeding), here's the difference, in a nutshell: farmers have no method for cross-breeding a potato with a jellyfish (or adding genes from bacteria, or whatever). That is, the lab technique permits technicians to effectively create new species.

Now I'm OK (in principle) with new species appearing on the shelves; but I don't want to eat them myself, until they have been tested with the same rigour as if they were novel medicines. My choice, you see. If the GMO products are smuggled onto the shelves in disguise, then what happened to my choice?

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

#154

Post by deadmetheny »

slavik81 wrote: post #64
Aloha wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've always wanted to try a Big Mike

Atlas Obscura had an article in which they ordered a box of Big Mikes from the Miami Fruit Company. It's a little on the pricy side to ship boxes of boutique fruits across the country, but they have quite an interesting selection. If I was in your shoes, I might wait for Big Mikes to be in season, then order the banana variety pack[1] (and ask that they include a Big Mike). You could pre-order a large box (10-14lbs)…

I regularly order fruit from these guys and can attest that it's all very good quality. The banana sampler in particular is one of the few ways I can actually get a good variety of bananas outside of being on holiday.

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

#155

Post by spelunker »

LgWoodenBadger wrote: post #151
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…

From my days working in software for the retail market about 20 years ago, we had to build functionality to allow the exclusion of bananas and milk from our predictive analytics application because EVERYBODY bought them. Probably over 99% of retail grocer transactions contained them.

That's super interesting! Are you saying 99% of retail grocer transactions contained either bananas or milk? Or BOTH?

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

#156

Post by marcosdumay »

omaranto wrote: post #142
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…

I don't get all this talk about "insipid Cavendish". Am I the only one that thinks Cavendish bananas are delicious? Yes, it's true that every other variety I've tried is better (I live in Mexico and we have several varieties of banana and plantain available), but even being the worst kind of banana I still think the Cavendish is very tasty. When people say it's insipid do they just mean compared to other bananas (in…

> Yes, it's true that every other variety I've tried is better

What was the question again?

You might want to place those Cavendish ones on the oven with a little of butter, or to fry them. They are unbeatable on that format, but are pretty bland otherwise.

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

#157

Post by yardie »

omaranto wrote: post #142
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…

I don't get all this talk about "insipid Cavendish". Am I the only one that thinks Cavendish bananas are delicious? Yes, it's true that every other variety I've tried is better (I live in Mexico and we have several varieties of banana and plantain available), but even being the worst kind of banana I still think the Cavendish is very tasty. When people say it's insipid do they just mean compared to other bananas (in…

> Am I the only one that thinks Cavendish bananas are delicious?

I don't have a problem with them. But they way they are grown is highly hit or miss. Yes, Cavendishes may all look similar. But the worst and best tasting banana I've ever had was in highschool and from a local grocer.

I don't think most people have had a proper ripe cavendish. They get what the supermarket has told them is a ripe cavendish. And this yellow, starchy, pulp really is a banana. So they assume the Cavendish is not a good tasting banana.

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

#158

Post by rz2k »

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..

The photography book Hungry Planet[1] by Peter Manzel shows what 30 families around the world typically purchase in groceries. Looking at them is almost like an exercise in find the bananas. A few of the families do not have bananas, but no other food is as common in the pictures.

[1] http://menzelphoto.com/galleries/hungry-planet/

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

#159

Post by tempguy9999 »

abrugsch wrote: post #130
ferzul wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

2-3 doesn't sound like much, even in australia we have that

In the UK we don't. you have to hunt pretty hard to find a banana that isn't a cavendish (or a plantain) In fact I don't think I've ever seen a second variety since i've started looking... (probably in the wrong markets, but that's kind of my point)

Sure they do. I live in london. Go to shepherd's bush market[0] and you can find cooking bananas like plantain, bluggo and matoke (my fave), and for desert bananas you can find fig/monkey bananas, red bananas and I think I've seen more. Go somewhere caribbean oriented and you'll have a better chance. Plus you'll find other unusual stuff too.

[0] worth it just for being the polar opposite of a sterile, well ordered, monoculture of a supermarket. It's fab.

(Edit: I didn't read your comment properly so my reply isn't so relevant)

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

#160

Post by tonyedgecombe »

marcosdumay wrote: post #156
omaranto wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't get all this talk about "insipid Cavendish". Am I the only one that thinks Cavendish bananas are delicious? Yes, it's true that every other variety I've tried is better (I live in Mexico and we have several varieties of banana and plantain available), but even being the worst kind of banana I still think the Cavendish is very tasty. When people say it's insipid do they just mean compared to other bananas (in…

> Yes, it's true that every other variety I've tried is better What was the question again? You might want to place those Cavendish ones on the oven with a little of butter, or to fry them. They are unbeatable on that format, but are pretty bland otherwise.

We used to wrap them in tin foil and put them on the barbecue while we ate the main course. Lovely.
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