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- dbuttry, on 10/12/2007, -1/+60http://www.snopes.com/food/warnings/bananas.asp
Claim: Bananas will be extinct within ten years.
Status: False.
In January 2003, a report in New Scientist suggested bananas could well disappear within ten years thanks to two blights: black Sigatoka, a leaf fungus, and Panama disease, a soil fungus which attacks the roots of the plant. Those claims have since been disputed. - johndi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+38It means that bananas lack variety, and unlike most cultivated plants you can't have a seed bank to bring them back after they are wiped out. To compare I'll post a small part of this popular mechanics article.
'Today SSE operates from a working farm in Iowa, where employees preserve seeds, in cold storage, for 18,000 varieties of food plants. Every year, they grow out some of these plants. The farm also features a historic orchard with 700 varieties of apples, most from the 18th and 19th centuries. The sheer volume and variety is remarkable. Consider 4000 varieties of tomatoes, 3500 beans, 1200 peppers, 1000 squash, 900 peas, 800 lettuces - and the list is still growing.'
http://www.popularmechanics.com/home_improvement/gardening/1273531.html?page=2&c=y
And that's just at one farm. - Gragoon, on 10/12/2007, -2/+32The article is not very clear on one thing... is this pandemic only affecting the Indian crops? If so, it is not the end of bananas, last time I checked, there are other places that produce bananas. Also, maybe someone can enlighten me.. what does it mean that the "genetic base has collapsed"?
- MikeSD34, on 10/12/2007, -6/+24Do you know how inbreeding caused so many problems for the old royal families trying to stay pure? This is the same thing. The plants can't thrive without genetic diversity.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+16all bananas have come from clones of the same plant for years..all bananas used to be like plantains and not very tasty, humans slowly modified it to be the plant today and in doing so, bananas lost their ability to make seeds. WE have been cloning bananas for 10,000 years, well norammly grafting the tops we want with feral bananas roots.
article is old news and largely incomplete.. they should mention the banana almost collapsed years ago when before the Cavendish was introduced. But bananas have lost the ability to evolve and their pests haven't.
There are several less tasty bananas we can switch too, it was said the bananas before the Cavendish were awesome... tooo bad i cant try them to agree.
There is a guy working on the problem.. Well lots of them but he is going back to trying to get a bananas to make a seed. I recall something like it took him going through 10,000 bananas to find one seed and no guarantees it would germinate. - MrIcee, on 10/12/2007, -0/+16Aloha from Hawai'i... where our Cocoa and Bananas are doing just fine. About the only problem we have with bananas is a pest which affects crops in some areas. But quite frankly, we have an acre chock full of bananas that grow and reproduce with no problems.
Many people may not know this, but to cultivate bananas we cut the entire banana tree down, about 1 foot from the ground. From this stump (or nearby, from the roots), another banana tree will quickly begin to grow. From shoot to fruit is about 18 months. - DanAtkinson, on 10/12/2007, -2/+17Once again, genetic engineering will to come to the resuce. They'll provide us with uber-bananas which taste a lot like chicken, glow in the dark, and cure hangovers, headaches, and many other common ailments.
If that doesn't work, I think I'll move on to apples. - frem001, on 10/12/2007, -0/+14all the bananas currently farmed are from the same genetic base so it effects all of them except certain wild species.
- Quactaur, on 10/12/2007, -1/+14To summarize the article
The seedless bannana plants can't reproduce as, they have no seeds. This was done intentionally, to remove the huge seeds in bannanas. They are therefore bred with cuttings (cutting a piece of the plant off and using hormone sprays to "clone" it.
Unfortunately, the cavendish bannana that is used worldover for bannanas is based in India, but is quickly dieing out due to deforestation and globalisation of the bannana trade. This means that any flaws in the Cavendish's genetic make-up are here to stay; the wild, varied bannanas are dieing out and the gene pool is becoming smaller and smaller. - Bhima, on 10/12/2007, -1/+13fortunately this is not the case with the coca plant... in fact it's doing quite well despite the fact the Americans have bathed Columbia in roundup. So well, in fact, there is Boliviana Negra which supposedly exists *because* of the round up.
Thanks Monsanto! - noGoodNamesLeft, on 10/12/2007, -3/+14It's not a "*****" banana. As the article says, they reproduce asexually, thus they do not *****.
- prestige, on 10/12/2007, -2/+13Oh yes, we have no bananas.
- JulianMorrison, on 10/12/2007, -4/+14I dunno whether you remember, or have read about the 1960s predictions of starvation in the 1980s and mass hyperfamine in the 1990s? They were right. They predicted correctly from then-current trends. People /would/ have starved.
People didn't starve, because prediction from current trends (and hence, the whole idea of "overpopulation") is founded on a conceptual mistake. The carrying capacity of the earth isn't bounded by "resources", it's bounded by human understanding. The technology of farming was improved, yields per unit land shot up, people could eat. There is in fact now more than enough food.
(Yes, the world was saved by fertilizer, pesticide, mass-production farming and bioegineered plants. Put that in your pipe and smoke it, granola freaks!) - brandonking, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9Snopes is not saying it is 'false' logic, just that it assumes nothing will be done to combat the problem. Fromt eh snopes site: "Lack of genetic diversity does place the banana in a precarious position, and the danger posed by Race 4 to the Cavendish is real."
- lollerskates, on 10/12/2007, -2/+10You know, the parent made me think of an old quote:
"No people, no problem." -Stalin
Also, Malthus is spinning around in his grave. - tempest, on 10/12/2007, -2/+10Quick, someone call Al Gore!
- Mejogid, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Well I don't know about the US, but here in Europe many farmers have to be paid through goverment grants to **not** farm some of their land - overproduction is harming prices. Furthermore, for the last 300 years, food production has risen significantly faster than population.
Besides, population is self regulating. If it rises to far, we get starvation and famine; squalor and war, until the population is back at an appropriate level. - lo0ol, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8I, for one, am pleased when someone can bust out some really old and topical lyrics.
"We'll sell you two kinds of red herring,
Dark brown, and ball-bearing.
But yes, we have no bananas
We have no bananas today." - chicken101, on 10/12/2007, -6/+13I volunteer you to be purged, since you seem so "concerned" that there is not enough food for everyone.
- Maskawanian, on 10/12/2007, -5/+12Soylent Green is made of people!
- brandonking, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8We have no bananas today?
- frem001, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9I heard Cocoa has a similar problem, no more chocolate
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6We can send Spock, McCoy, and Kirk back in time to get more Banana Seeds! To the Enterprise!
- brandonking, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7He'll make a Banappulate - half banana, half apple, half chocolate that will kill all fungus. I hear he's totally serial, too.
- Bojo55, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7damn, bananas are important, they're nutritious and *****.
- jsg7, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6This would be a huge hit for the comedic industry. Comics will have to find something else to slip on...
- freebirdpat, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Darn, I just started liking bananas
- VorpalK, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5Now now. Manbearpig is not responsible for the destuction of the banana. I'm cereal!
- Urusai, on 10/12/2007, -4/+7What did they ever do to you?
- ACoolie, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I wrote an article about this, it is mostly fiction and is overstated. First of all, there are hundreds of varieties of bananas in the world. The Cavendish is the most common, with a yellow complexion and common taste. These other varieties are not as threatened by the disease and we can still have bananas, just not the Cavendish. Also, before the Cavendish, there was a banana that ruled exactly like it (Don't recall the name), which died out to a Panamaen (sp?) disease. The Cavendish quickly rushed to the top, so we have little need to worry.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3our non feral plants can no longer survive in the wild without fertilizer.
- jemanuel, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Smithsonian Magazine had a very interesting article on this a few months ago, focusing on how researchers were trying to improve the genetic diversity of bananas. Check out http://www.smithsonianmagazine.com/issues/2005/october/banana.php
- ylocav, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3actually the 'yes, we have no bananas today' song is about this same thing happening way back then. this is not the first time this has happened - the bananas our grandparents ate are not the bananas we eat today. and our grandchildren will eat yet another kind.
- dhughes, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3 I'm quite sure bananas are a type of herb.
- CraigJ, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3from a nutrition and taste point of view the Cavendish is not as good for you as some of the other variates - it is the most popular because it has the best shelf life and ability to be shipped. If it truly goes away there are some 300 other variates...
- trebor, on 10/12/2007, -5/+8i can live without chocolate, but no more cocaine? something must be done!
- JulianMorrison, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4@JohnboiWaltune : You should learn to understand the price mechanism. It's by no means so simple as "the oil will run out". When the supply drops, price goes up, marginal supplies become viable (oil shales, tar sands), priorities and usage patterns change, and research focuses on alternatives.
You fail to understand my core thesis. There is no scarcity or abundance. Resources are creations of technology, according to what use we know how to make of the raw materials available. Increase technology, suddently you have "more" resources for the same amount of stuff. And, necessity is the mother of invention. Ergo, there will be no "die-off". Your apocalyptic fantasies will remain unreal. - lo0ol, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2"I don't know where you got that from, but I think brandonking was referring to De Boswachters - Het Bananenlied"
I was referring to the popular song from the 1920's, and I'm assuming brandonking was too (in addition to the 4-5 other people below also posting along similar lines). - levyjl1988, on 10/12/2007, -5/+7I can't survive without chocolate!
- NextOfKin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2At worst, it would be the loss of the 'standard' Cavendish bananas that we usually see in the US. Economic impacts aside, I'd be happy to see that bland, flavorless variety disappear. Just about any banana you encounter outside the US (S. America, Asia, or Africa at least) has so much more flavor that there's really no comparison. Of course, they tend to be small and thin-skinned, which could be a problem for transport.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2perhaps while you are calling me names you could reply to the offensive comments..
as for the one about the us being the worlds biggest consumers.. i wasnt being serious. thats why i also pointed out that we were the "biggest"(fattest) consumers as well. (i am not fat)
If you read most of my posts you can see the views i take .. especailly since i have pointed out that this has happened before and we are left with a less than optimal banana..
But thanks for the unintelligent name calling, it really helps show your side of the arguement, i love people like you. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3buy your banana seeds here
http://www.seedman.com/banana.htm - dWhisper, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Discover and PopSci have both covered this in the past, so it's a bit old news. I'd really miss banannas, but there's so much resistance to the possible solutions (genetic engineering or chemical fixes) that it's been a stalemate in getting the issue resolved. I forget what the name of the old bannans which were around until a similar pandemic led us to what we enjoy now.
- trebor, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@PowerCow:
Cocaine is a crystalline tropane alkaloid that is obtained from the leaves of the coca plant. - neatflux, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1It seems that the diseases are still isolated to non-commercial plantations in Asia (according to Snopes as far as I can tell, correct me if I'm wrong). They could be devasting to the banana market in parts of Asia, but the world will still have bananas.
- spacebar14, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2My dad told me this about 5 years ago. Does that make this story "old news"?
- hervey, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1There are LOT's of it in the Philippines!
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1too all the people it will never hapen.. it has happend many times in our lifetimes with many foods..
fish sticks arent made with the same yummy fish as when i was a kid, why because we ate them all now we use a fish that isnt as good... bananas were better in the past now we are stuck with less sweet varieties..
sure bananas probably wont go away in your liftime or even kids but i dont really want to eat a plantain in my cerial.
I do have faith in genetics though, if they can make glowing monkeys they can figure out a way to make the banas disease resistant - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2BY being the number 1 consumer nation we keep all world economies running along. I am not sure your government or all the people in your country would agree it would be a good idea for the americans to limit their consumption.
we also are only the number 1 consumer by population but i bet if you do it by population weight we arent as bad as some countries. Us americans are so fat we are like 3 of a normal countries person. - JohnboiWaltune, on 10/12/2007, -5/+6@JulianMorrison
"(Yes, the world was saved by fertilizer, pesticide, mass-production farming and bioegineered plants. Put that in your pipe and smoke it, granola freaks!)"
Fertilizer, pesticides, and mass production farming all depend on a supply of cheap oil... which is not a renewable resource. When we run out of cheap oil, food production will drop off dramatically, and there will not be enough to go around. It's just a simple, unavoidable, and unpleasant fact that the world's population is going to crash dramatically within the next 100 years. That is, unless we find a way to increase our food production without it being dependant on the availability of cheap oil. If we don't do this, then there WILL be a massive die-off due to famine and resource conflicts.
Some even believe the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq (and soon, Iran) are our government's first steps towards preparing for this new situation. They are establishing a permanent military presence in the major oil-producing area of the world, and using the insurgency in Iraq to get our military battle-hardened in preparation for the coming conflicts with other world powers. -
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