Banana crops are under threat from a deadly fungal disease
I saw this on the news last night, and wanted to warn people about it. When I heard it I was in near disbelief, and so I checked it out online, and what is written below is what I found.
Banana crops are under threat from a deadly fungal disease.
Alice-Azania Jarvis looks into the rise - and potential fall - of Britain's favourite fruit
There are several thousand types of banana around the world, though we only tend to eat one. The Cavendish. First grown in the Chatsworth greenhouse of the William Cavendish, sixth Duke of Devonshire, and catapulted into the mass market during the 1940s, the Cavendish accounts for 99 per cent of international consumption.
Unfortunately, the Cavendish is in danger. Tropical Race 4, a fungus which has already destroyed acres of crops across Taiwan, Indonesia and Malaysia, is threatening the plantations of South and Central America. With the ability to linger in soil for decades, the prospect of a Race 4 outbreak in what is now the banana hub of the world could be catastrophic – both for plantation owners who depend on the fruit for their income and for consumers, who would see an entire foodstuff wiped out until further notice.
What a change that would be. In the UK, we munch more than five billion bananas per year. Since the mid-1980s, consumption has increased by more than 300 per cent, making us one of Europe's largest consumers of the fruit.