Say goodbye to the beloved banana

cheryl

cheryl

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Say goodbye to the beloved banana - Big Think

Those bananas you love are Cavendish bananas, and they're probably about to go extinct.
  • The world's most popular edible variety is about to be wiped out by a fungal invader. Again.
  • We've already lost Gros Michel bananas, which were the world's favorite until the 1960s.
  • The solution? Possibly genetic editing, but more likely a greater availability of exotic varieties.
They're certainly among the most convenient fruits. Bananas are compact, tidy, bundles of potassium and deliciousness. And when we says "bananas," what we really mean are Cavendish bananas, an edible, cultivated subgroup of the fruit. Ninety-nine percent of the bananas sold in the world are seedless Cavendish bananas, although in the wild there are over a thousand strains of bananas, many of which are unsuitable for eating. Unfortunately, Cavendish bananas are about to go extinct.
 
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