So Bananas Are Going Extinct Because We Were Idiots And We Did This To Ourselves

In 1923, beatnik jazz musician Sam Lanin wrote a song called, "Yes! We Have No Bananas." Stay with me here.

The song was quite apt because back then, the bananas species that millions of people around the world had eaten for centuries were going extinct. A fungus, Tropical Race 1 strain of Panama disease, had spread from Australia and nearly wiped out the banana species called the Gros Michel. It only took the fungus a couple decades in the late 1800s to do that. 

And surprise, surprise, we've learned nothing. A stronger strand of the fungus called Tropical Race 4 is going to do the same thing but this time, we made it easier for the disease to spread.

These are the infected roots of the banana plant after its been infected by TR4 strand of Panama disease.

The fungus cannot be killed by the usual chemicals, it strangles the food and water supply, can spread easily and its spores can stay in the soil for decades.

Over a century since then, banana plants from all over the world are being killed by a more potent mutation of the same fungus called Tropical Race 4.

The disease affects 85 percent of the entire banana market which works out to 145 million tonnes (160 million tons) of bananas and plantains produced each year. And according to a new study, scientists say the banana we eat is facing extinction and it's not a question of if but when.

And (without exaggerating) there's nothing we can do to stop it. And not even a stupid fundraising campaign using a Drake cover of "Yes! We have No Bananas" can save us.

Sorry, dude. Your sweet jams can't raise enough funds to fix this...

But I hear you say: "You're exaggerating" — what does the study actually say?"

Well, the study published in PLOS Pathogens finds that this new fungus strand is killing and threatening the survival of the Cavendish species of banana.

Scientists have known about this new strain, Tropical Race 4, for more than 50 years since it started infecting up crops in Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Australia (where the first version of the Panama disease developed in the 1800s). 

But Latin America — where we get most of our banana fix — has been largely untouched. However, scientists said that won't be the case for much longer.

The global reach of Tropical Race 4

How could we let this happen?

The banana species we eat is a monoculture. That means all commercially produced bananas that the world eats are essentially clones of each other. Dole and Chiquita breed them to be identical because it's easier to pump out a lot of them. This breeding also minimizes the number of ugly fruits that are riddled with small imperfections that we'll complain about.

The problem with the bananas being clones is that a single disease or pest can cut through the global fruit population like a knife through, well, a banana.

Main image via eHow | M.J. Doran

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