What will us Monkeys Do..... Scientists ‘incredibly concerned’ for fate of banana as plagues and fungus infections spread across world’s supplies Warning comes as Costa Rica declares 'national emergency' over state of crop The world’s supply of bananas is under threat from plagues of bugs and fungal infections which could be disastrous if they continue to spread, researchers say. The government in Costa Rica, one of the biggest suppliers of the fruit, has already declared a “national emergency” over the state of its crop. The country’s half-a-billion-dollar banana export industry has been hit by two separate plagues of mealybugs and scale insects, with up to 20 per cent of its produce written off. Magda Gonzalez, the director of the agriculture ministry’s State Phytosanitary Services (SFE), told The Tico Times last week that climate change had boosted insect populations in recent years, making plagues increasingly likely across the world. “I can tell you with near certainty that climate change is behind these pests,” she said. The insects weaken plants and cause blemishes on fruit, leading to vast batches being rejected. Ms Gonzalez said there were serious concerns the country would not meet its export agreements. Meanwhile, a Scientific American report warned of a variant of banana-eating fungus which is currently threatening key plantations around the world. Scientists believed the disease, caused by the fungus Fusarium oxysporum f. sp.cubense (Foc), was limited to parts of Asia and Australia. Yet it has now been found in Jordan and Mozambique, and in a new strain to which the vast majority of bananas are susceptible. “It’s a gigantic problem,” said Rony Swennen, a breeder at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Gert Kema, a Fusarium researcher at Wageningen University and Research Centre in the Netherlands, co-authored the report on the disease in Jordan. He told Scientific American: “I’m incredibly concerned. I will not be surprised if it pops up in Latin America in the near future.” Combined with the threat of bugs, researchers said the Foc-TR4 strain could threaten banana exports across the whole of Latin American and the Caribbean – which accounts for more than 80 per cent of the world’s supply.
bananas are serious business....they are clearly a GMO from the aliens when they created us.... it's the only fruit that you can live on exclusively....
A lot of people didn't see the documentary "Playing God" where they successfully spliced banana and bovine DNA as a means to transport inoculations to unwitting people. 10 Insane Cases of Genetic Engineering - Listverse Could this virus and mutated virus be caused by them playing god?
My climate change has been 10-20 degrees colder this month. How's yours? This couldn't have anything to do with the fact that the ships that transport the bananas may have carried some kind of different strain of fungus or variety of bug that they didn't have before could it? It may just be the first anything like that ever happened. Ya right.
CLEARLY it's because you didn't give Al Gore enough fiat currency... If you woulda paid YOUR FAIR SHARE of carbon tax...all of this could have been prevented.
It's a ploy, they must have found that it cures something that they are now in the process of obtaining a patent for. Smoke 'em if .. erm, put them into storage right next to the twinkies in deep storage.
We don't do bananas often, all I really use them for is banana bread. Don't like them whole, not even in banana splits. If I remember right, it is a result of gorging on dried banana chips when I was a kid then puking them back up. Association'll kill ya if you let it.
hmmm the food bank was giving away bananas today, but by the time we got up front, they were all gone. I told mom that I was gonna get made fun of, I just wanna know which of you planted those bananas at the food bank?
Bananas are the least of your worries up in Alaska! If these mosquito's that have moved into Florida find their way up to you guy's, YOUR TOAST!!! you just think you have big ones up there. check out these SUCKERS!!! Giant Mosquitoes Emerge in Central Florida | TIME.com