The Banana is Heading Toward Extinction

Did you know that the variety of banana that we eat today isn’t as tasty as the one our parents and grandparents enjoyed prior to 1960? That’s right, we’re missing out on better bananas. Sad. Well, enjoy the variety we have left, because it’s next.

From The Scientist:

The banana we eat today is not the one your grandparents ate. That one - known as the Gros Michel - was, by all accounts, bigger, tastier, and hardier than the variety we know and love, which is called the Cavendish. The unavailability of the Gros Michel is easily explained: it is virtually extinct.

Introduced to our hemisphere in the late 19th century, the Gros Michel was almost immediately hit by a blight that wiped it out by 1960. The Cavendish was adopted at the last minute by the big banana companies - Chiquita and Dole - because it was resistant to that blight, a fungus known as Panama disease. For the past fifty years, all has been quiet in the banana world. Until now.

Apparently, Panama disease is back, and Cavendish bananas aren’t resistant to the new strain. There is no cure, and nearly every banana scientist says that although the disease is currently spreading through Malaysia and hasn’t yet hit Latin America, where our bananas come from, it’s only a matter of time. Dun dun dun!

Soon, the only choice we have left may very well be a genetically modifided (GMO) banana. In order to survive the Panama disease, it will have to be carefully created in a biotech lab.

What I think is most amazing about this story is that there are banana scientists. Who knew?

Link [The Scientist]
Photo credit: Flickr user Sister72

Drop Those Cookies! Girl Scouts Want You to Pass on the Thin Mints

Next time you hear a box of delicious Girl Scout cookies calling your name, picture a sad monkey. Two girl scouts from Ann Arbor, Michigan want you to know that mass consumption of Thin Mints is putting endangered orangutans out of their homes.

Seattle Times has it:

Madison Vorva and Rhiannon Tomtishen, both 12, started doing research last fall on endangered orangutans in Indonesia as part of their Bronze Award project. They discovered the habitat of orangutans is being threatened by conversion of the land to the production of palm oil, an ingredient in Girl Scout Cookies.

Although the two have sold many boxes of cookies over the years, this year they sold magazines instead.

Evidently the Girl Scout higher-ups aren’t too pleased with this, considering that they depend upon cookie sales for funding. They’ve told the girls that ABC Bakers, who produce the cookies, have promised to avoid purchasing palm oil from areas deforested specifically for palm oil production, but this hasn’t satisfied the girls.

I used to be a Girl Scout, myself, in the 80s - pulling my little red wagon of cookies down the street. Had I caught wind of something like this, I most certainly would have taken the opportunity to yell things like ‘monkey killers’ at people to get out of selling cookies. Mostly because neighbor boys would chase me down the street on their bicycles making fun of my uniform, but also because, you know, I cared about monkeys and stuff.

Link [Seattle Times]

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons, in the spirit of Lolcats