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Well, yes, but….

‘False banana’ could solve food shortages caused by climate change

And it’s not a bad foodstuff etc.

But it’s also true that there are hundreds of cultivars of bananas themselves and they do thrive I a wide variety of conditions. Meaning that we can continue to use – as hundreds of million do – bananas themselves….

4 thoughts on “Well, yes, but….”

  1. I suppose there’s lots of things I’d eat if I was starving. But our rich, technologically advanced society means I can eat what I want.

    So I’ll leave this one up to the wicked capitalists. If they can produce tons of the stuff, and persuade me to give it a go, I’ll try it. But otherwise I’ll stick to my rubbish bin stew.

  2. I thought that bananas (as we know them) were about to die out? Something to do with all banana trees current extant being clones from one original tree and some disease is sweeping through the world killing the lot?

  3. That’s the commercial, yellow, seen in supermarkets, banana, yes, the Cavendish. Which is indeed a clone and yes, there is a rust or fungus or summat coming for it. As happened to the previous widely commercially grown cultivar, the Gros Michel. Which was, obviously, replaced by the Cavendish.

    There are hundreds of other banana types out there. Many of which are still peasant grown. And that’s before we get to the plantains, the next thing over….

  4. To add to what Tim said, the supermarket banana is specially chosen to be suitable – it must be possible to harvest it, ship it over long distances, and have it in good saleable condition. If you live in a part of the world where bananas grow and try some of the other varieties they are much nicer. Unfortunately, they do not travel well. I have read that the Gros Michel was considered nicer than the Cavendish, but is no longer viable commercially.

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