Dorie’s Different Reality

OMG, why wasn’t I apprised of this?The world’s commercial banana crop is in peril because of “Panamanian Blight” Here’s a short explanation of what’s going on: Banana Blight

photo-S.Hobson,2005)    This points out the problem with much of the world’s commercially grown food. Most of the things we eat every day are hybrids and sterile. Or if you plant the seeds, they don’t breed true- come out completely different. That’s why that seed vault of the ages project up in the Arctic is so important. Saving all that good plant DNA.

I’m sure the big fruit growers like United Fruit and Dole are on this. They might have to go back to the drawing board to find or even produce another hybrid resistant to this wilt. Then all the commercial groves have to start cultivating the new variety. It sounds like bananas could get scarce and expensive a few years from now! I saw some the other day for .77 a pound and thought that was outrageous!

Now and again, I’ll see a banana tree is a yard around here Remember this is Maryland where (with increasing infrequency) there’s snow and ice in the winter. It turns out that there are “hardy” banana varieties. I’m going to have to check Ebay and get some seeds. The heirloom rhubarb seeds I bought are doing great- I have cute little rhubarb plants in pots now! Guess I’ll have to start Project Banana!

This entry was posted on Monday, June 2nd, 2008 at 8:34 am and is filed under Culture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.