![]() ![]() There are any number of ways the problem can spread. “The situation is very urgent,” says Bebber. Sure enough, the confirmation of the presence of Tropical Race 4 (TR4), another strain of Panama disease, on banana farms in Colombia, prompted this summer’s declaration of emergency there. “It only takes a single clump of contaminated dirt, literally, to get this thing rampaging across entire continents.” “ single banana scientist I spoke to-and that was quite a few-says it’s not an ‘if,’ it’s a ‘when,’ and 10 to 30 years,” he said. Almost a decade ago, Dan Koeppel, author of Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World, warned in an NPR interview that Panama Disease would return to the world’s largest banana exporters, and this time with a strain that would hit the Cavendish hard. ![]() ![]() To the people who pay attention to such things, it wasn’t long before a case of banana déjà vu set in: the Cavendish had supplanted the Gros Michel, but-even though it had initially been selected for being disease-resistant-it was still at risk. In fact, the entire banana supply chain is now set up to suit the very specific needs of that variety. As the Gros Michel was ravaged by disease, the Cavendish banana took over the world’s markets and kitchens. ![]()
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