Goodbye Bananas

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This fruit has been around for what seems like forever. It was one of my favorite fruits which my mom never had to force me to eat. I am talking about bananas. I still remember laughing at the commercial when Ms. Chiquita would sing about how great the bananas were. I was never fond of banana pudding or bread but I did cut banana slices into my cereal and ate bananas on the run. That is why when I read this news it upset me. They say that the most common banana in the world is the Cavendish banana and that now it is in danger of becoming extinct. There is a fungus known as Tropical Race 4 or TP4 and it is wreaking havoc with bananas by killing millions of the plants. This dreaded fungus was first discovered in Malaysia in 1990 and from there is spread to South-East Asia then to Australia and Africa. It apparently is difficult to control because they say that it’s spread in the dirt which is carried by wind, water, cars and people’s shoes. Now they believe that this could mean the end of bananas. Well let’s not panic, yet. At present this is making only one banana variety – the Cavendish – extinct. Before this variety was in danger another known as Gros Michel got attacked by a fungus called Panama Disease and this banana became extinct in 1965 making way for a new main banana – the Cavendish. The biggest problem is that if at this point all of the banana plants with the fungus were burned the fungus would still remain in the soil. Therefore new plants could not be grown and the option would be GM or generically modified bananas which would be resistant to these kind of diseases. Isn’t it GM foods that we want to avoid? So I suppose we can get by without bananas but I do love them. http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/1601/160127-bananas.html#ixzz3yvvlP0gc