Ever wonder why bananas are never out of season? This is because the same exact banana is being grown all over the world. Over 99% of bananas eaten in North America are of the species subgroup Musa acuminata Cavendish. They are also the most popular species of fruit consumed in the United States.
This wasn't always the case, Gros Michel was actually the top export species until 1965. It was that year when it was declared commercially extinct due to the Panama disease, a fungal disease that quickly spread to most of the world's commercial banana plantations, leaving no other choice for plantations but to burn down their one and only crop. Commercial banana plantations quickly switched to an inferior species, it was smaller and not as flavorful, yet almost visually identical to the Gros Michel, called the Cavendish, which we continue to eat to this day.
The problem with these bananas is they are all genetically identical to each other. No matter what grocery store you go to, bananas are clones of one another. Due to this monoculture of cloning one species, the world's banana supply of Cavendish are all vulnerable to the disease, and under threat of going commercially extinct just as Gros Michels did in 1965.
This new disease started out in Malayasia around the 1990s and is known as 'Tropical Race 4.' It has since spread to Asia, Australia, and Africa spreading rapidly and causing destruction in its path.
The fungus which causes the disease remains in soil even after plants are removed, currently leaving only one solution for plantations which have been effected by Tropical Race 4. Burn all their crop, and grow something different.
This lack of diversity in the banana industry could disrupt the way we eat, and the economies which rely on the crop. Creating a relapse of a lesson about monoculture that after 50+ years, the global banana industry still hasn't learned.
This wasn't always the case, Gros Michel was actually the top export species until 1965. It was that year when it was declared commercially extinct due to the Panama disease, a fungal disease that quickly spread to most of the world's commercial banana plantations, leaving no other choice for plantations but to burn down their one and only crop. Commercial banana plantations quickly switched to an inferior species, it was smaller and not as flavorful, yet almost visually identical to the Gros Michel, called the Cavendish, which we continue to eat to this day.
The problem with these bananas is they are all genetically identical to each other. No matter what grocery store you go to, bananas are clones of one another. Due to this monoculture of cloning one species, the world's banana supply of Cavendish are all vulnerable to the disease, and under threat of going commercially extinct just as Gros Michels did in 1965.
This new disease started out in Malayasia around the 1990s and is known as 'Tropical Race 4.' It has since spread to Asia, Australia, and Africa spreading rapidly and causing destruction in its path.
The fungus which causes the disease remains in soil even after plants are removed, currently leaving only one solution for plantations which have been effected by Tropical Race 4. Burn all their crop, and grow something different.
This lack of diversity in the banana industry could disrupt the way we eat, and the economies which rely on the crop. Creating a relapse of a lesson about monoculture that after 50+ years, the global banana industry still hasn't learned.
Written by Ross