Bananas. Being the only fruit that aren’t wildly overpriced in the supermarkets in Japan, are a staple for me during the long summers. The banana pretty much all of us know, the big, yellow, seedless one, is a variety called the Cavendish. Grown as sterile mutant clones, every Cavendish you buy is genetically identical. Clones, y’see.

This is great for uniformity in supermarkets and making huge piles of identical bunches. The problem begins when a disease starts wiping out bananas across the entire world forcing the entire banana industry to scramble franctically for a solution.

For the thrilling conclusion to the ominious start of our tale of mass destruction, check out Can This Fruit Be Saved? at PopSci for a ridiculously indepth article on the entire situation:

Once a little-known species, the Cavendish was eventually accepted as Big Mike’s replacement after billions of dollars in infrastructure changes were made to accommodate different growing and ripening needs. Its advantage was its resistance to Panama disease. But in 1992, a new strain of the fungus—one that can affect the Cavendish—was discovered in Asia. Since then, Panama disease Race 4 has wiped out plantations in Indonesia, Malaysia, Australia and Taiwan, and it is now spreading through much of Southeast Asia. It has yet to hit Africa or Latin America, but most experts agree that it is coming.

Posted in Randoms on Tuesday September 20, 2005.

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