Why The World’s Most Popular Banana May Go Extinct | Big Business

Bananas are facing a pandemic, too. Almost all of the bananas exported globally are just one variety called the Cavendish. And the Cavendish is vulnerable to a fungus called Panama Disease, which is ravaging banana farms across the globe. If it's not stopped, the Cavendish may go extinct. We visited a farm in Colombia infected with Panama Disease and a lab in the Netherlands studying the fungus to see if biosecurity and breeding can save the $25 billion banana industry.

00:00 Intro
1:22 World's favorite banana
2:51 Banana harvest
5:51 The fungus spreads
8:15 The first extinction
9:13 Could science save bananas?

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Why The World’s Most Popular Banana May Go Extinct | Big Business

[wpyoga]

"We have a scientific solution, but not a political one" -- well said.

[fajarhidayat]

I live at Indonesia, i plant several types of Bananas. They all different, but each one has unique than other. Small one is very tasty, but the biggest one is the best to make banana chip. They easy to grow, can plant many variety in small area without problem. The problem is our market.

[babananabanana]

If you travel across the equator. theres alot of banana that are immune to TR4, BUT its not exactly appealing to western costumer eyes.
The problem is that westerner only eat banana that has no blackspot on it, and cavendish is the solution.

[AquaMarine]

The fruit of the banana grows as a bunch with individual hands forming around the flower stem. In processing the banana hands are divided into smaller sections and boxed for sale to the markets. The Cavendish is also grown in Australia but best by far is what we call the "Ladyfinger". This banana is smaller and visually straighter not so curved. Home growers in Australia are not allowed to grow Cavendish for reasons of disease control.

[आशीषसाहू-खल]

I've a banana farm in India but I heard about this TR4 thing for first time. We grow 4 species of bananas including plantain. It's profitable business, nothing goes waste, even stem is used for making compost and leaves as food containers and plates.

[adzizi]

They rejected GMO food but at the same time they don’t diversify their consumption. Here in Asia we consume various type of banana & plantains. Depending too much on one variant of plant produce will slowly kill biodiversity.

[ANonymous-vuzn]

Westerners: GMO will eventually eradicate biodiversity
Also westerners: We only eat cavendish bananas

[teonnagoree]

I didn’t realize there are hundreds of types of bananas, it would be cool seeing different varieties in stores

[jazziegurlt]

There are literally 1000s of other types bananas that we could eat in its place... and they are seeded not clones.

[Alberto-xwvx]

In the whole video, they keep repeating the Cavendish tastes good and the others not. That's completely and utterly false. The Cavendish is good for the industry, because can ripe during the ship travel. But Cavendish lacks all flavor. For an inexperienced person, that does not know much about fruits and harvest, they only care about beauty and image, but in my own experience if you want sugar content, flavor and a better taste, the "uglier" the better.

[mayapadmi]

When you go to traditional markets in Indonesia you will find very wide variety of bananas !! Even you'll be confused what to choose because they all tasted so good .

[thedude]

There was an researcher working for UA (university of Antwerp) that was also researching this. He also noted the requirements of banana cultivation and the places where they are grown and a suggestion arises to use multiple cultivars better suited for that enviroments instead of monocropping cavendish because like the previous monocrop of banana the cavendish its time is numbered

[ellieevans]

I laughed when she said they're "packing then carefully" while that guy looks like he's stuffing them in that box forcefully

[otisroot]

“Oh yeah it’s going extinct” “oh yeah there’s a gmo that’s immune”

[teoengchin]

In most tropical counties, we have many different types of local bananas as well as imported Cavendish. Think its a lot to do with the Cavendish being breed to be able to "travel", as well as the familiarity westerners have with it.

[tuhaodantocvietnam]

*I also have a lot of bananas where I grow, but this much is scary*

[One-jzsl]

Truth is, "the most popular banana" doesn't taste very good compared to other kinds of banana, so be it.

[alienamzal]

Being born and brought up in Sri Lanka, I have always been spoiled by the ability to choose from dozens of different types of bananas to eat. I cant even imagine getting to eat only the Cavendish (Which is really bland) and even the whole industry depending on it

[vitor]

Here in Rio de Janeiro Brazil we can easily find 2 types of Bananas on the supermarket.
Banana d'água / nanica (Cavendish)
Banana da terra (Plantain / Cooking bananas)

And those we can find in weekly fruit/vegetable fairs. @Sometimes you can also find those on the supermarket but its rare.
Banana prata (Chunkey Banana).
Banana maça (Manzano Banana / Banana apple)
Banana ouro (Lady Finger / Sugar banana)


They all seedless and teste somewhat similar but the Plantain still retains a little bit of unripe flavor after fully ripened. The biggest difference between them is texture/swiftness. And the Banana apple has a smell that resembles the apple smell.

[MrKIMBO]

As a Filipino, there are better banana than that 🍌. Sadly, Western economies choose one than diversity of the bananas.