Is This the End of Bananas As We Know Them?

Nasty illness is "inevitable."

July 22, 2011

Is genetic modification the only way to save our bananas? (Photo: Reuters Pictures).

Banana lovers, beware: that bright yellow beauty you love to pick up at the grocery store might be disappearing before you know it, and genetic modification might be the only way to save it. 

That's because the Cavendish banana, the variety that is most popular in supermarkets around the world—thanks to its ability to survive to long transport distances and withstand a worldwide banana disease that wiped out its predecessor—is being threatened by the same fungal infection that rocked the banana industry two decades ago. 

Panama disease virtually annihilated the global banana crop in the first half of the 20th century. It single-handedly wiped out the Gros Michel variety of banana.

When the Cavendish was found to resist Panama disease, banana growers breathed a sign of relief. But in the '80s, a mysterious ailment started to plague the Cavendish variety. And then researchers made a harrowing discovery: Panama disease was back. And this time, it was a new strain.

There's no fungicide or treatment for Panama disease. The only solution is to tightly quarantine infected plantations to keep it from spreading. Right now it hasn't impacted South American planatations, where the bulk of U.S.-bound bananas are grown. But experts say its arrival in our part of the world is "inevitable."

Check out the full story at The Scientist to see what options exist for keeping bananas on store shelves, and why genetic modification might be the only answer. 

[via The Scientist]

Comments 4

Submitted by pjoliver on Sat, 07/23/2011 - 5:24pm
An odd bit of trivia for those who think of our evolutionary ancestors as thriving on bananas: the original bananas were native to southeast Asia. They weren't transported to Africa until about 2 thousand years ago, well after humans had already built pyramids.

Submitted by Jennifer Becker on Sat, 07/23/2011 - 9:41am
It's what happens with singular varieties. It's what you can expect to happen to all of our main-conventional crops. There are plenty other banana varieties and I agree with the first poster. Let nature take its course, as it is wont to do, and breed the ones that survive this little bananapocalypse.

Submitted by timthaler on Sat, 07/23/2011 - 9:28am
scary news. a good excuse to create exclusive rights on a genetic modified yellow fruit which only looks like a banana? on the fields there will be a very small part of those bananas that will survive the panama disease. and those are the ones that will be resistant to the disease, at least particulary. lets not watch the governments create measures and standards to mother natures garden only because the best-fit-to-industry-standards is the most important criteria to global traders. whats the use of being the richest man on the planet knowing your children will never know the taste of a genuine banana, our forefathers main dish ? and lets not forget that scary news like "GMO is the last chance for any banana" opens the wrong doors !

Submitted by ttattx on Sat, 07/23/2011 - 9:10am
seems to me, I'd rather have no banana than a GMO banana... Besides, there's a whole bunch of other fruits I enjoy..