Timothy Birdnow

Say goodbye to bananas? A fungus may be among us, and killing the fruit.

From the article:

Recently, officials in Colombia declared a national emergency after confirming the presence of this deadly fungus, known as Fusarium oxysporum Tropical Race 4 (TR4), in the country, according to the Colombian Agricultural Institute (ICA).

This is the first time the fungus has been detected in Latin America. However, the fungus isn't new — for decades, it has been devastating banana plantations in Asia, Australia and East Africa, Live Science previously reported.

Although this fungus isn't harmful to humans, it is a "serious threat" to banana production, according to the United Nations. The fungus attacks the plant's roots and blocks its vascular system — the network used to transport water and nutrients — and ultimately kills the plant. Once the fungus finds its way into soil, it can't be treated with fungicides, and it's very difficult to remove.

What's more, the fungus attacks the most commonly exported banana, the Cavendish banana. "For Western countries, the vast majority of the bananas we eat are from the same Cavendish subgroup," Nicolas Roux, a senior scientist at Bioversity International in France, told Live Science in a June interview.

Cavendish bananas reproduce asexually, meaning that the plants are essentially clones of their parents. This means banana crops lack genetic diversity, and infections can spread quickly.

"What we're having is an almost apocalyptic scenario where we'll probably lose Cavendish [banana]" Sarah Gurr, Exeter University’s chair in food security, told Wired

There are other types of bananas; we may have to switch. More likely, we may have to develop new breeds.

In the 19th century the world's wine industry was decimated by a nasty little mite called  Phylloxera Vastatrix. A native of North America, this devastating little bug loved to dine on the roots of vinifera grape vines. American grapes, much hardier than their European cousins, had long come to terms with the little monsters and were immune to them, but the European varietals were completely destroyed. When Phylloxera made it's way to Europe the French vinyards all began to die. In an act of desperation the French began cross breeding experiments to create new, phylloxera resistant strains. These are known as French-American hybrids, and are the backbone of the wine industry east of the Rocky Mountains (Phylloxera had never penetrated west of the mountains so California was able to grow Vinifera grapes where those died in the east.)

In the eastern U.S. great effort had been made to produce American hybrids which made palatable wine, something hard to do with the sour, "foxy" tasting grapes. But the French were able to produce very good wine grapes, varieties such as Chancellor, Chambourcin, Seyval, Vidal, etc. They also planted some of the American varietals, like Norton or Clinton or Delaware or Elvira. But they wanted their traditional grape varieties, so they bought a bunch of root stock from Missouri and grafted the great vines onto the American stock. So the Cabernets, the Pinots, the Chardonnays all come from Missouri roots.

It worked, and when phylloxera appeared in California vineyards the snooty Californians went to France to get their Missouri root stocks; they looked down on their midwestern cousins.

At any rate, the world's wine industry was saved from a fate quite similar to the one that appears to be attacking bananas now. It may call for a bit of a different solution, but in the end someone will find a way to save the banana.

Thank all that is holy they didn't blame this on Global Warming. I'm sure someone will find a way at some point.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 11:24 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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