The banana plays a pivotal role in global health and economy. In the United States, people eat more bananas per year than apples and oranges combined. In fact, the banana is the fourth largest agricultural product in the world after wheat, rice, and corn. According to "Bananas and Food Security," the proceedings of a 1998 symposium by Bioversity International, "bananas and plantains provide more than 25% of food energy requirements for around 70 million people" in Africa. The report notes that in Uganda, people eat more than 500 pounds of banana per person per year, making the country the highest in terms of consumption per capita.
Given the banana's importance and overwhelming popularity, it would be a global tragedy if they were to suddenly vanish. Unfortunately, this may soon be reality. Around the world, a disease to which bananas are particularly vulnerable has begun spreading.
Basic Banana Biology
To understand why a banana disease can have a devastating impact on the fruit's production, it helps to know a bit more about the banana itself. Surprisingly, the banana is botanically classified as a "berry," and the tree that it grows on is not even a tree at all. According to the website for the University of California-Los Angeles Botanical Garden, the banana plant is actually an arborescent (tree-like) perennial herb.
The most important part of the banana's biology is its genes. Essentially, the dessert bananas produced for consumption are genetically identical; they can only make new plants by cloning themselves. Farmers typically grow new plants by taking cuttings from existing ones. The benefit of genetic uniformity is that banana production can be systematic, with each banana developing in exactly the same way every time. The negative implication, however, is a lack of genetic diversity that inhibits the species from evolving disease resistance. Basically, what makes one banana sick will make every other banana sick.
A Brief History of the Banana and Disease
This is not the first time bananas have encountered devastating disease. The variety of banana that is currently available is not the same one available fifty years ago. The original variety of edible banana was called the 'Gros Michel,' and it is often regarded as having been tastier and more robust than the variety consumed today.
The 'Gros Michel' was struck by a disease called "Panama Disease," a banana-killing fungus transported by soil and water. Because bananas are genetically identical, the disease was able to completely wipe out the original consumer banana.
By 1960, the 'Gros Michel' was just about extinct, and at the last minute companies begrudgingly adopted the 'Cavendish' banana. Although it was not exactly the same, the taste was close, and it resisted the disease. This variety of banana is the one eaten today.
The New Banana and Panama Disease
While things have mostly been fine with the 'Cavendish', it seems as though Panama Disease is back, according to the June 18, 2008 New York Times article "Yes, We Will Have No Bananas." A new form of the disease has begun spreading throughout Asia, Australia, and parts of Africa, and the 'Cavendish' is not immune to this new strain. The new disease, in fact, is more potent than the original and has already caused damage.
The Future of the 'Cavendish' Banana
The most obvious implication of the new Panama Disease is simply the extinction of consumer bananas. Fifty years ago when the 'Gros Michel' was under attack, scientists simply found a similar-tasting banana that resisted the disease, but it does not seem that that's an option this time. Although scientists have searched the globe, and although there are more than 1,000 species of banana identified, most of them contain giant tooth-shattering seeds, and the rest don't taste anything like the banana eaten today.
The only viable solution would be in the field of genetically modified food. This would both provide resistance to the disease and maintain the taste and texture that makes the 'Cavendish' so popular. Unfortunately, genetically modified foods have met a lot resistance, with GMO research being stifled and people unwilling to try genetically modified bananas. However, if the push to preserve the modern banana is strong enough, public attitudes may begin to shift.
References
Koeppel, D. (2008). Banana: The fate of the fruit that changed the world. New York, NY: Penguin Group.
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