I was talking with my babysitter, and we thought about many different things to write about for my blog post, and then she remembered a podcast she listened to that talked about the commonly eaten cavendish banana, and how this particular type of banana may be going extinct because of a disease called the Panama disease. The cavendish banana was actually chosen to be our main banana, because it was thought to actually be resistant to the Panama disease. Now, this fungus hasn't hit any of the Americas yet but it is on its way and it's only a matter of possibly 5-10 years until it could maybe even wipe out the cavendish species itself. There are only two ways to figure out this problem. We either find a different species that we can adjust to, meaning we adjust to a different taste, size, and possibly color of banana, or we find a cure for the Panama disease. Frankly I don't think we can find a cure seeing that they have been trying for over five years.
This sounds pretty bad right? Well it gets worse. There are over 1,000 different types of bananas around the world. At the moment though there is no replacement for the cavendish banana because out of the 1,000s of bananas, we would have to find a better way to ship them, and a faster way or else the banana would go bad on it's trip, and become very bruised. The cavendish particularly though, is the only banana species that is suited for shipment because of its tough skin. The banana also ripens at the correct rate for shipping well.
Will we be saying goodbye to our most beloved fruit?
Wow - I have to admit I knew none of this. Makes sense about the need for the think skin - think of all of the bananas we see in stores just across Maine! Nice post!
ReplyDeleteI wonder what the world would be like without bananas.
ReplyDeleteGood job Cat. I think you should find a way to share with more people. I wonder how many bananas are in the world exactly. Good job.
ReplyDelete-Ian
It sounds like we've become overly dependent on this type of banana.
ReplyDelete