Bananas Used To Be Totally Different In The ’50s

http://www.buzzfeed.com/sarabo...

That "article" kind of makes light of what's a very serious situation!

Monoculture is very dangerous!

Literally millions of human life's will be seriously affected by the loss of the cavendish, furthermore, there is no replacement for the cavendish! Not even close as a matter of fact!

When Gros micheal met his fate, we had cavendish waiting in the wings! And still took 20-30 years to recover from that loss! And from reports I've heard, Gros micheal, was a MUCH better tasting, and even more nutritious than today's gran nain varieties!

It may not be a few decades until gran nain and all the cavendish varieties are gone, there's reports of " race 4" throughout the tropics world wide!
Bunchy top has been reported outside of Hawaii too, it's been quarantined there for some 50 years...

Now Monsanto has step up shop in Hawaii, much to the locals dismay!
Hard telling what they are up to, would not be surprised if their interest has roots in the subject

If you love nanners you might better get your fill now!

As the article pointed out, we have the hand of man to thank for the bananas we have, we would all be picking rock like seeds of of tiny little fruits had we not monkeyed with them
In my mind it may be a great example of ashes to ashes...

There is a link to an article within this article that is definitely not "light hearted" as this one - hard to miss it if you don't know what to look for - I missed it the first time around:

The Beginning of the End for Bananas?

http://www.the-scientist.com/?...

Another thing .. it's sad that the author can't spell Cavendish (Candevish)!

Also, I have a vague memory of an incident as a small child in the early 50's (yes, I'm as old as dirt) refusing to eat a banana for some reason which made my momma mad .. that may have been when they switched to the Cavendish.

1.i did not notice the other article, thanks for pointing that out!
2.people are idiots, atleast he didn't call em cravendish's
3. I'd have never guessed that about ur age, young at heart I suppose!

From what I hear a gros micheal is like eating a dessert by comparison to today's naners...but then again, a tree ripe banana is something few Americans get a chance to eat, by comparison they are like dessert, the naners in stores are cut green and then gassed with ethylene to ripen them...tasty!

Sheesh! I've been attributing that to old age and dead taste buds! Not really! Almost everything we buy in the market is picked green and gassed, or bred for shipability rather than flavor and nutrients. Sadly, the younger generation doesn't even know what real produce tastes like!

Carol, I always look forward to whatever it is that's locally grown.

So "Yes we have no bananas" will be making come back? There are so many different varieties out there, are the Cavendish so much more reliable? or is it shippability? I had some really small bananas on vaca and they were much better than those from the market.

No doubt!

I remember way back in the olden days when I used to watch the pterodactyls come to the pterodactyl feeder that my food flavor memories didn't jive with what I was eating this day (especially peaches and apples) and time and also thought that the lack of taste in todays food was due to my advancing decrepitness and perhaps a faulty memory but came to realize that mass produced food always tastes meh! Lettuce actually used to have a flavor!

Appreciate the link to the articles, X. Makes me want to run over to the local nursery and pick up a couple of bananas to "save."