
Fungus threatens top banana - tokenadult
http://www.nature.com/news/fungus-threatens-top-banana-1.14336
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logfromblammo
We've known this could happen for decades, just due to the way bananas are
propagated. The same thing happened to the Gros Michel cultivar in the 1950s.
Plantations will have to scramble to get up to speed on a new cultivar, and
some people will go bankrupt.

It's even the same species of fungus. Back then they called it Panama Disease.

But now we have genetic technology. This fungal disease may spell the end of
non-GMO bananas in supermarkets. If there were another natural cultivar
resistant to the latest strain of the fungus, it would already be in use. It
was a stroke of luck that they even found the Cavendish before bananas
disappeared entirely from the food supply.

~~~
mathattack
Wow - So are you saying this is a case for GMO (create a resistant banana) or
against it (for killing biodiversity)?

It's a shame because bananas are very cheap. On the one hand they're cheap
enough to double in cost and many can handle it. On the other hand, they're a
cheap staple for low income folks.

~~~
pygy_
There's no biodiversity in bananas. All Cavendish plants are sterile genetic
clones.

It was the same for Gros Michel.

Edit: what more, GMO are not inherently bad.

Monsanto gave them a bad name, because of their commercial practice
(terminator gene), and the catastrophic environmental consequences of
glyphosate-resistant crops.

They can be used wisely. For example, did you know that the insulin diabetics
use is produced by GM yeast?

~~~
jurjenh
Yes, but that's not the only way bananas propagate. The fruit is how genetic
variability gets introduced, but they also develop shoots from the root
system, which eventually grow into trees themselves.

I believe traditionally bananas are grown as the main trunk, then 2 baby
shoots at differing maturity. Once the main stem has fruited, it is removed
and the next one takes over, at which point another shoot is allowed to
develop.

The extra shoots that are removed can be used to start another "family"
elsewhere, but has the risk of spreading disease. These days tissue culturing
is used, with a much lower risk of spreading disease.

~~~
pygy_
Offshoots are non-artificial clones. They are genetically identical to the
main stem... It's just the same plant.

~~~
mathattack
I'm impressed with the bananaknowledge here. Is there a limited amount of
times you can do this?

~~~
jurjenh
I don't think there's a limit, as its part of the natural growth pattern of
bananas. Some other species have similar habits - I believe there's an entire
forest that is one plant -
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pando_(tree)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pando_\(tree\))

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lutorm
"something killed our huge monoculture, so we replaced it with another huge
monoculture, and now something's killing it!" Is it really so surprising?

~~~
jurjenh
The problem here being that "normal" bananas have seeds in them, and the
Cavendish and Gros Michel are specific hybrids that don't - so the only way to
propagate is essentially cloning them (take a cutting and grow it) - lots and
lots of identical plants.

Going back to a more "natural" system would involve a lot of variation in
fruit crops, which means handling and processing costs would go up
tremendously, likely leading to the same result: no bananas for most people.

One of the more sustainable solutions is to eat local - food that is locally
grown, thus suited for your environment. However, this means that all those in
temperate climates will (eventually) need to forgo tropical fruits... or grow
them in glasshouses.

Not sure what the best approach would be here, but I'm fortunate enough to be
in an area where you can grow bananas - so I'm trying my luck (Auckland, New
Zealand)

~~~
mathattack
Bananas are cheap enough that many of us can afford a 2x or 3x cost increase
easier than with other fruits.

What's so bad about banana seeds? Are they hard like in grapes?

~~~
jurjenh
They look much more like passionfruit, but with more solid fleshy material. I
think the seeds are hard and inedible, but haven't ever seen them in real
life...

Also the cultivated ones have been developed specifically for their
transportability and shelf life, with the taste as a lower priority. Hmmm...
wonder what those Gros Michel taste like?

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana)

~~~
mathattack
Maybe we all go to plantains, or that out too?

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jrkelly
If GMOs can get a win with this, citrus greening disease in oranges, or
vitamin A-fortified "golden" rice it will be a big deal for public acceptance
of the technology.

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IvyMike
The apple guys (the fruit not the tech) have been able to market a variety of
cultivars quite successfully. Even the tomato guys are doing good work with
the whole "heirloom" thing. I don't get why the banana guys don't try the same
thing.

Edit: There are _already_ a bunch of cultivars out there:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_banana_cultivars](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_banana_cultivars)

And according to this poster, bananas mutate quite easily, so there are
actually a huge number of variants out there:
[http://www.fruitlovers.com/BananaPoster.jpg](http://www.fruitlovers.com/BananaPoster.jpg)

Yeah, most of these bananas aren't great for eatin' but surely we made a good
banana once, we can do it again.

And if you think hipsters wouldn't pay more for a unique "artisanal heirloom
banana" then you don't shop at the Whole Foods down the street from me because
those dudes would be all over it like fungus on a Cavendish.

C'mon banana hackers. We need you now more than ever.

~~~
ajross
You can't breed a banana. The species can't sexually reproduce, so all plants
are essentially clones. This makes the production of new breeds very slow (you
can't cross-breed to isolate desired traits) and means that when a novel
disease arrives, no individual plants will have any immunity.

~~~
jurjenh
This is incorrect. You can't breed fertile bananas from the Cavendish, but if
somebody kept records of how they got there (crossing which cultivar with
what) we could do the same today starting with the original cultivars, which
most likely are still around somewhere...

The problem is finding the cultivars and doing the whole experimental process
with specific plants and documenting it... Given that bananas grow fairly
quickly it is probably relatively do-able. Just need some land and some
volunteers... And flying under the radar of the banana companies :)

~~~
ajross
I guess that gets to the semantics of what a "banana" is. You can't breed the
plant that produces the fruit we buy in stores. Clearly there are ancestors
that could reproduce. Yes, it might be possible to recover most of the traits
of a commercial banana by breeding them. But it's never been done, so I don't
see where the "This is incorrect" bit comes from.

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guard-of-terra
It's kind of humiliating that we the great sentient race can't protect our
bananas from some lowly fungus. I think we should get our act together. We've
already lost a few rounds.

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CatMtKing
Well if we create a big enough niche by growing a very specific cultivar,
something's going to fill it.

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state
Not to diminish the downsides of this, but I really can't get enough of the
wide variety of tiny bananas I get to eat when in Asia. You can find them
occasionally here in the US, but they seem low on the import priority list.
Wouldn't mind seeing more diversity in the banana department. There's a whole
world of deliciousness we rarely see.

~~~
ArbitraryLimits
None of them handle all of: being picked early, being shipped, sitting in a
supermarket display, and being bagged. That's why there's only one cultivar in
US supermarkets in the first place.

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dragonwriter
> That's why there's only one cultivar in US supermarkets in the first place.

Well, except that I've been in several US supermarkets with more than one
cultivar. (I think red and apple bananas are the most common non-Cavendish
ones, excluding plantains, I've seen.)

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drakaal
Bananas are basically all clones (Seedless and all that)

This makes the risk very high for such things, it is surprising that we have
gone this long with out issues coming up sooner and more frequently.

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dmazin
Is that an Arrested Development reference?

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michaelochurch
There's always fungus in the banana stand!

