Why Are Bananas Going Extinct?

A new fungus called Panama Disease Tropical Race 4 is threatening to eliminate all the Cavendish bananas! Why is this a big deal, and are we able save this delicious fruit? Watch as Trace and Tara discuss this growing concern.

Read More:
How the global banana industry is killing the world's favorite fruit
"During harvest last year, banana farmers in Jordan and Mozambique made a chilling discovery."

Has The End Of The Banana Arrived?
"Researchers fear that a relentless and virulent fungus could cripple the world's banana monoculture."

Can This Fruit Be Saved?
"The banana as we know it is on a crash course toward extinction. For scientists, the battle to resuscitate the world's favorite fruit has begun - a race against time that just may be too late to win."

Chiquita says banana blight threat not imminent (PHOTOS)

A horrifying disease is threatening to destroy the world's bananas
"The U.N. is warning of the 'massive destruction' of the world's banana crop."

About 1,200 banana varieties - blue, black, maroon, yellow - 'Dutch Elm disease' KO'd Big Mike
"Did you know the 'Gros' Michel, or 'Big Mike,' banana, a tastier banana than the current yellow Cavendish variety, was the common banana sold until the early 1960s when it was infected by a fungus called Panama disease similar to Dutch Elm?"

Banana Price Chart

Average retail food and energy prices, U.S. city average and Midwest region

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[WardancerHB]

Those are all clones, so we all ate the same banana. 
It's kinda bonding when you think about it, isn't it?
And gross.

[RDGR]

Tara is ALMOST as hot as Laci Green.
That was a compliment.

[TheNerdyGinger]

Well this is why my mom keeps buying organic stuff. All of the crap that they put into food nowadays. SAVE THE BANNANAS

[Dojan]

That's not what a monoculture is. A monoculture means that you're growing one crop over a large area. This in turn isn't good for the soil, leaving it without nutrients, meaning that you have to fertilise it with industrial fertilisers.
These fertilisers are water soluble, meaning that the more you fertilise a plant the more it'll have to "drink" also leading to larger size fruit and oftentimes fruit that doesn't have as much taste.

I say fruit as the botanical term (anything that contains seeds) but this applies to any sort of plant you eat.

[ThenZya]

Saw this pop up in my subox while drinking a banana smoothie. 

[ItsVikVaughn]

Gros Michel aren't extinct, they're just not mass produced.

[championabsolute]

I'd love to see Tara and Laci both eating a banana. Anyone agree?

[DanicaDeCosto]

I've tasted those other kinds of bananas and they just aren't as good.

[firstglance]

I didn't know there were so many breeds of bananas! Upon opening this video I was worried that one of my favorite fruits were actually becoming extinct but the world is a big place and we have very smart scientist on it so there's still hope out there for my yellow, edible friends.

[SawBlood]

I love putting the bananas in my cereal, way better than adding sugar. I also love only paying a dollar for like a "6 pack".... then blending some with guayabas and strawberries for an orgasmic beverage. This is fucked up.

[AG]

The combination of Tara's pun and Trace's laugh had me in stitches haha excellent.

[noahealy]

I watched the views count go from 97 to 301 just by refreshing the page every second and it took 45 seconds

[GreatPirateSolomon]

Wait wait wait... you're saying we changed the banana through artificial selection?  Ray Comfort lied to me?!?

[nathanyax]

Additionally, isn't it possible to preserve a large amount of cavendish banana seeds, switch to a different type of banana temporarily (long enough for the fungus to die off), then use the preserved seeds to reinstitute the cavendish?

[winterwaffle]

I have bananas pretty much everyday. I could have 2 a day sometimes if i didn't restrain myself. They are SO versatile too! They're a natural sweetener in my oatmeal; they can replace eggs in certain recipes; they thicken smoothies, etc. I LOVE them. I NEED them...—from a banana enthusiast

[BunnaySango]

SOMEONE SAVE THE NANNERS!! The only thing that could be worse is if strawberries went extinct.

[OverthereLook]

What song does the background music sound like??
I remember as a kid the lyrics going like "ain't no stoppin' us now, we're on the move"
or something like that.

[goatmonkey]

I saw an article yesterday about growing fruits and vegetables in clean rooms.  It seems like they could do that until figuring out how to solve the problem.  It would still mean that we wouldn't really be able to buy them, but they could come back at some point. 

[OntDinRS]

It would be a shame if cavandish bananas were to go extinct. I think I'll preserve some cavandish specimens so that future scientists can bring them back.

[ShitomAhmed]

I stay in Bangladesh... :( i wanna know that is this virus available here :(