Bananas are under attack!

[NicoleDeLaMer]

This is just a crazy! Did you know that the banana in the 1950’s was a totally different banana than the one we eat today? Now I’m talkin’ about the “regular” eating banana here. In the 60’s a disease wiped out the banana that everyone was used to. This happened because the banana plant is a clone of it’s original.

Well bananas are under attack again. There is a new disease that is wiping out bananas as we speak. The Asian crop is all but extinct and the bananas you are eating now are only from countries that have been able to fend off the disease for the moment. Scientists are working hard to find a replacement banana like they did in the 60’s. They have produced one that they have introduced to Asia and it has been accepted a substitute. The only complaint is that it has more of an “apple taste”. Scientists do not know how long the current crops will be able to fend off the disease. Most of the bananas we are eating come from South America, so they are hoping they can isolate themselves long enough to come up with a better substitute. Now I’m not saying they will be disappearing next month or next year for that matter. It’s just something that I think is totally crazy and I thought I’d share.

(Information came from Popular Science.)

:)

[Silkie McDonough]

I love bananas. Today just keeps getting beter and better.

[CaptainCiaran]

Goin' to the grocer now to buy bananas!!!

[Arthur Richards from Kent]

I love bananas

[Christine]

Eh, oh, well, I hate bananas anyway. I never liked them, even as a little baby. I threw them back at my mom when she tried to feed them to me.

[The Doctor]

Yeah, but a strawberry or kumquat down the front of the old trousers ain't very impressive come pub night! Time to check the potato isle...

[Christine]

Aw, come on Jack, I doubt you need to put anything down yer pants to help make things look bigger.

[Capt. Lazarus Gage]

Bananas are good, but only if they're still half green and crisp.

[Capt. Lazarus Gage]

OMG THATS IT!!!! LOST IS ABOUT A BANANA RESEARCH STATION!!!!!!

[The Doctor]

OMG THATS IT!!!! LOST IS ABOUT A BANANA RESEARCH STATION!!!!!!

And I thought that between, Kate, Anna Lucia, Libby, and Sun, it was a wet t-shirt research station!

[Patrick Hand]

Dang ....dang...dang..... I wasn't going to post this.... found it in another forum..... but .....Aaaaaaarrrgh.... can't help myself......

http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/badgerphone.php

[Merrydeath]

shoot him.. shoot him now!!

I cain't get it out of my heiad....

[Patrick Hand]

cain't get it out of my heiad....

Ring....ring....ring...banana Phone

I have no idea why I like that stupid song so much........

[Caraccioli]

They'll find a way to save bananas - where there's a market, there's a way.

[Christine]

LMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OMG, that was annoying! LOL!

[NicoleDeLaMer]

wow... from "I love bananas" to "banana phone" I hadn't anticipated on such interesting responses.

[The Doctor]

I had a banana harmonica when I was a little kid. I loved to play it, but then, one day, I couldn't find it anywhere...

[Patrick Hand]

from "I love bananas" to "banana phone" I hadn't anticipated on such interesting responses

I couldn't help myself.....

didn't want to mess up the thread, but Banans phone just hadda get posted........

[Mimi Foxmorton]

Amazing this memory brain cell survived.......but, I had a corn on the cob harmonica.........

[Captain Booty]

The banana virus is pretty bad. Thank God for the current cloned crop or we'd all be eating these.

[lady snow]

attack of the bananas? eeeeeeeeeeek!!!!!!!!!

that vidoe just keeps repeating and doesn't stop!

[HarborMaster]

I am not sure I even understand this thread? Is this another one of these fun threads that has no real content or are you thinking what your saying you read is real., because it isnt true.

for example the thread contains this

NicoleDeLaMer

The Asian crop is all but extinct and the bananas you are eating now are only from countries that have been able to fend off the disease for the moment.

There are 4 rows of Banana at the nieghbors between my beach and the highway. These are very old., these have been there for many many years., its an old farm. There are over 150 species of Banana on the Islands. Every Public Market is full of them that I have seen from Cebu to Manila. The type we normally think of to eat would appear to be readily available everywhere we go. The type they cook., is everywhere. Bushels full from every street vendor here.

What Planet are you on? There is no Banana shortage in the Philippines., and thats as Asia as its going to get., its so far east if you go any further youll be in Guam.

Endangerd Banana right. When was the last time you ate a steak and it tasted like ice cream? Well the bananas over here do not tastes like apples. They taste like Bananas.

This reminds me of that joke., about the inventor who created an apple on one side and an orange on the other., and while at the bar one night he is explaining about his new "Secretly Invented Fruit" and he says "Would you like to try it? " to his friend...., "It taste like a woman !!!"

The friend says ., Really? No way !! Let me have it., and he takes a big bite of it., and exclaims., "whewwwww !!! That tastes like Shit ! ". The Inventor says., "Turn it over., Turn it Over" !!!

[NicoleDeLaMer]

Yes, there are many varieties of bananas. (more than 500) The Cavendish banana that is most commonly thought of as "banana" is in trouble. I wouldn't have believed it myself but it was an article in Popular Science a few months ago and it is a known fact that the bananas DID suffer a awful disease in the 1960's. If you ate a banana before the disease occurred, you would have eaten a larger sweeter banana than the one we have today. That was the Gros Michel banana. That was the common banana before the Cavendish. I never said that you couldn't get bananas and that there was a shortage. No one knows how long they will be around or if this really will make this variety go extinct. Some scientists say it will be 5 years other say 10 but they do know that it is possible.

If you don't believe me then check these out

http://www.physorg.com/news5802.html

http://www.afrol.com/News2003/afr001_bananas.htm

http://www.thedominican.net/articles/banana.htm

http://www.tierramerica.net/2003/0223/iacentos.shtml

[HarborMaster]

Interesting., most of the links indicate., So.America and Africa. 500 is alot of variety. There are so many . Kind of like the bird flu., It affects differant areas and travels of course. The only country I saw clearly listed in Asia is Australia., but I can imagine Indosesia's next., of course that doesnt mean all 17,000 islands will be affected.

[blackjohn]

Even the Gros Michel isn't extinct.

Even though it is no longer viable for large scale cultivation, 'Gros Michel' is not entirely extinct, as it is still grown in some areas where Panama Disease is not found. Likewise, 'Cavendish' is in no danger of complete extinction, but there is a possibility that it could leave the shelves of the supermarkets for good if disease winnows the harvest down to where it can no longer hope to supply the global market. It is unclear if any banana cultivar currently existing could replace 'Cavendish' on a scale needed to fill current demand, so various hybridisation and genetic engineering programs are working on creating a disease-resistant, mass-market banana.

From wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bananas