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May 18, 2006

Yes, We May Have No Bananas

When we drove up to Kahakuloa Head on Maui, we passed a little stand that has been claimed to have the best banana bread in the world. Now, I don't know if I'd call it the best, but it was certainly very good.

I cannot imagine a world without bananas. After all, it's the world's most popular fruit crop. According to wikipedia, bananas rank fourth after rice, wheat and maize in human consumption. It's considered a staple food in some cultures, providing much-needed vitamins, fiber and nutrients like potassium and iron. It's used medicinally for everything from blood pressure and stroke to constipation and PMS. There's no question that eating bananas is one of the most dietarily efficient ways to get your daily doses naturally.

One large banana, about 9 inches in length, packs 602 mg of potassium and only carries 140 calories... 2 grams of protein and 4 grams of fiber... 2 mgs of sodium. ... 36 grams of carbs...Vitamins and minerals are abundant in the banana, offering 123 I.U. of vitamin A ...B vitamins are present with .07 mg of Thiamine, .15 mg of Riboflavin, .82 mg Niacin, .88 mg vitamin B6, and 29 mcg of Folic Acid...13.8 mg of vitamin C. On the mineral scale Calcium counts in at 9.2 mg, Magnesium 44.1 mg, with trace amounts of iron and zinc.

More At: Nutritional Benefits of Bananas

Having spent much of my teenage years reading ingredient listings during a phase when I hated bananas, period, I may be slightly more aware than the average consumer on how many things actually contain them. You'll be hardpressed to find a smoothie that doesn't contain bananas. They're often used as a low-cost filler ingredient in things with other tropical fruits, like Häagen-Dazs tropical fruit sorbet and other fruit juices. You'll find them not only in desserts and as raw fruit snacks, but in curries, dried as chips, and fried, boiled, baked, sauteed, not to mention set afire.

But now the banana may be under threat.

Go bananas while you still can. The world's most popular fruit and the fourth most important food crop of any sort is in deep trouble. Its genetic base, the wild bananas and traditional varieties cultivated in India, has collapsed.

Virtually all bananas traded internationally are of a single variety, the Cavendish, the genetic roots of which lie in India...threatened by pandemics of diseases such as that caused by the black sigatoka fungus. The main hope for survival of the Cavendish lies in developing new hybrids resistant to the fungus, but this is a difficult and time-consuming task because the seedless modern fruit does not reproduce sexually and has to be bred from cuttings.

More At: A future with no bananas?

Now while the actually extinction part may be a bit overly dramatic, it is true that the genetic diversity of the banana has suffered over time, and diseases have caused a lot of trouble especially in third-world nations that depend on the banana crop to stay cheap and sustainable.

For instance, in central Africa, people eat about 1000 pounds of bananas per year. For reference, according to the US Census, Americans eat about 275lbs of fruit - all fruit including OJ, apples, etc.

Ugandans use the same word "matooke" to describe both banana and food.

In the past, the banana was a highly sustainable crop with a long plantation life and stable yields year round. However with the arrival of the Black Sigatoka fungus, banana production in eastern Africa has fallen by over 40%.

More at: Wikipedia: Bananas

It's not surprising that the more common a crop becomes, the more vulnerable it becomes with regard to diseases and fungus and other plagues of that sort. This news on the banana is interesting on its own, but it also got me thinking about another aspect of the situation. If you were paying attention above, you might have caught the fact that it's difficult to breed new disease-resistant hybrids because the seedless modern fruit does not reproduce sexually.

We live in an age where we're trying to control produce. We don't just want it bigger, we want it uniform. We grow mangoes and apples so they fit into those plastic boxes perfectly. God forbid we have misshapen fruit, because no one will buy it. We grow citrus with thicker skins so they last longer on the way to market. Strawberries are bigger and more beautiful than ever, even if they taste like sour lemons.

A common and popular type of agricultural control are the "seedless" varieties. Seedless grapes, watermelons, and oranges are very popular. They're easier to eat. I love my seedless clementines. It takes careful breeding of plants to get those species in the first place. The more popular they become, the more likely they are vulnerable to the same problems that the bananas are having now. Losing banana crops is bad enough, but imagine grape and citrus crops suffering from something similar. Now you're effecting the wine and OJ market, much closer to your home and your wallet.

Posted by sorsha at May 18, 2006 10:19 AM