Good morning,
I hope everyone had a lovely weekend, donāt worry I realise it is Tuesday, Iāve a very interesting one for you this week.
Iām also excited to finally open the print shop tomorrow - Wednesday. Thank you to anyone who takes the time to just have a little look around š shop.guyb.ie
Anyway, Cāmere to meā¦
Letās Talk Bananas š
The Cavendish could soon be gone forever
Firstly, it is important to say that the history of the banana industry is a rocky one, built from land grabbing plantations so large that they shaped the borders of countries we know today and scarred by human atrocities in search of cheap labour.
99% of bananas exported around the world are the Yellow Cavendish. The Cavendish is perfect, it is the most marketable, despite not being the largest or tastiest.
The entire production line globally has been set up to suit the size and needs of the Cavendish, everything has been tailored so that the bananas are delivered perfectly on time and all exactly the same, to meet our consumerist standards.
The idea that the yellow cavendish could be, arguably will be, wiped out is not an exaggeration, in fact, this situation has quite literally happened beforeā¦
Panama disease, during the 1950s, wreaked havoc on the āGros Michelā banana which was the most widely produced and available variety at the time.
By the 1960s, the worlds most popular banana was virtually extinct.
The Cavendish banana, which was resistant to Panama disease, took over the industry and after some heavy marketing became the new dominant variant.
However, the Cavendish doesnāt produce seeds, and although this makes it very easy for us to consume, it means that they can only be grown by planting identical offshoots, therefore genetically identical plants exist all over the world.
Tropical Race 4 (TR4) is a strand of Panama disease that began to devastate the cavendish in the Philippines a few years ago.
As the Cavendish is a monoculture, essentially a disaster waiting to happen, scientists have been in agreement that it was not a case of if but instead whenā¦
TR4 has now reached the crops of Latin America, as it infultrates all of the major exporting regions around the world.
āThereās a name for this situation: monoculture, the practice of fostering just one variety of something. Monoculture has its benefits. The entire system is standard, so thereās rarely new production and maintenance processes, and everything is compatible and familiar to users. On the other hand, as banana farmers learned, in a monoculture, all instances are prone to the same set of attacks. If someone or something figures out how to affect just one, the entire system is put at risk.ā
(read more - TIME)
The fungus doesnāt just kill the bananas but it makes it impossible to grow them on that piece of land again.
Farmers are desperately burning and disinfecting plants, to try and halt the spread, but many of the poorest simply donāt have the resources or education to stop it properly.
āThe story of the banana is really the story of modern agriculture exemplified in a single fruit,ā says Daniel Bebber, who leads theĀ BananEx research groupĀ at the University of Exeter. āIt has all of the ingredients of equitability and sustainability issues, disease pressure, and climate change impact all in one. Itās a very good lesson for us.ā
(read more - TIME)
This mini-doc by VICE is just 15mins, well worth a watch, it elaborates much more on the surprisingly fascinating origins of the banana, the economics of the industry and the current state of ādoomāā¦
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Scooby Doo is a Great Dane. In the shows, we see Shaggy, Velma, Daphne, and Fred all run at the same pace as Scooby. Great Danes are one of the fast breeds of dog and can run at speeds up to 48 kmhā¦
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Guy