With the climate crisis and diseases threatening one of the world’s most popular fruits, researchers are hoping a breakthrough in breeding techniques could give the Cavendish banana a certain future
I re-read the article to see which bit of pedantry I wanted to focus on.
What they’re doing is creating one type of replacement banana, not a diverse ecosystem of different banana types.
So if THAT banana became susceptible to some disease, they’d have to do this again.
I’m not personally worried too much. There are thousands of types of bananas out there, and so they’ll figure out how to make another one produce a lot that can be transported. Someone will figure it out like these guys are doing now.
But technically, they are working on a single type to replace the Cavendish.
The article mentions trying to make the replacement fertile so they can breed them rather than clone them, which would increase disease resistance, so that’s great. But I know some diseases attack a type of plant - a type of tree, for example - that reproduces normally. So the topic is rather more complicated.
Either way, @patruelis read the article (q.v. another sub-thread comment chain), and so did the people disagreeing with them, but everyone seems to be focusing on different bits and missing each others’ points.
Peter Stedman, Chiquita’s sustainability director, said: “We are not trying to preserve Cavendish. We’re trying to replace Cavendish because we believe at the core of any sustainable farming system is biodiversity and genetic diversity.”
I re-read the article to see which bit of pedantry I wanted to focus on.
What they’re doing is creating one type of replacement banana, not a diverse ecosystem of different banana types.
So if THAT banana became susceptible to some disease, they’d have to do this again.
I’m not personally worried too much. There are thousands of types of bananas out there, and so they’ll figure out how to make another one produce a lot that can be transported. Someone will figure it out like these guys are doing now.
But technically, they are working on a single type to replace the Cavendish.
The article mentions trying to make the replacement fertile so they can breed them rather than clone them, which would increase disease resistance, so that’s great. But I know some diseases attack a type of plant - a type of tree, for example - that reproduces normally. So the topic is rather more complicated.
Either way, @patruelis read the article (q.v. another sub-thread comment chain), and so did the people disagreeing with them, but everyone seems to be focusing on different bits and missing each others’ points.
What? No. It literally says…
Peter Stedman, Chiquita’s sustainability director, said: “We are not trying to preserve Cavendish. We’re trying to replace Cavendish because we believe at the core of any sustainable farming system is biodiversity and genetic diversity.”
What are you disagreeing with?
I’m confused.