Top Banana

     Bananas, everyone loves them, better enjoy them while you can!   Dan Koeppel, in “Can This Fruit Be Saved?” writes the banana, as we know it, is on the way out.  After traveling to Honduras to visit a banana plantation, Koeppel learns the Cavendish banana is expected to die out.  The Cavendish banana was not the first banana Americans tasted.  Gros Michel or “Big Mike” was the first.  But due to fungal afflictions, primarily Panama Disease followed by the Black Sigatoka Disease, it did not survive. 

            An entire breed of banana can grow extinct for two main reasons: disease and lack of seeds.  Bananas rarely bare seed; in fact, the Cavendish is seedless.  When entire banana plantations are assaulted by fungus or worms, there are no back-up seedlings to start over.  To keep the most popular fruit alive, scientists are creating new types of bananas, but none will ever be exactly the same as the Cavendish banana.  Eventually, a newly developed breed will rise from the tropical rainforests and become our new top banana.