It is very likely that humans will not have bananas to eat in 30 years!
How can I tolerate this? But then again, aren’t bananas grown artificially? The annual output of
is so amazing, how could it become extinct in 30 years?
According to research from the University of Exeter in the UK, due to the spread of the disease, bananas will completely leave our lives in 30 years!
Suddenly, netizens around the world were heartbroken and couldn’t live without bananas! We must save bananas!
The whole world loves bananas
As one of the fruits with the highest production in the world, bananas account for three-quarters of all tropical fruits. Human beings around the world kill .1 trillion bananas a year.
So why are bananas going to perish even though they are already in the lap of mankind?
Perhaps, we have never seriously understood bananas.
Many people think that humans love to eat bananas because our ancestors loved them. Look at the apes in the zoo , how delicious they are!
In fact, this statement is wrong. Our ancestors may not have seen banana at all!
The real banana is not only ugly to look at, but also very unpalatable.
Monkeys eating bananas
Balala's story
Banana is a fruit that originated in Southeast Asia. Its cultivation by humans can be traced back to about 7,000 years ago..
Bananas were introduced to our country during the Han Dynasty and began to be cultivated. However, they were not warmly welcomed.
The reason is that is not as delicious as . The banana at this time is with long seeds.
The seeds of the banana are very hard , and the whole banana is filled to the brim. People look for bananas to eat among the seeds.
And the bananas of this period were not the "yellow moon" we have today, but the "TuFeiyuan".
For the Chinese at that time, the leaves of the banana were more useful than the banana itself.
The ancestor of the banana
Until the Tang Dynasty period, bananas were introduced into Arabia , then into Europe , and then introduced into Central and South America through the great voyages.
So the human ancestor Australopithecus has never seen bananas, because it lived in Africa , and has never eaten bananas.
Perhaps our distant relative the orangutan has seen and eaten the original banana , and it must not like it either.
After the great voyage, bananas were found all over the world, but bananas during this period were still not fruits.
People prefer its leaves , which can be used to build roofs . This custom is still retained in some tropical rainforest areas .
Until in the 19th century, people discovered a variant of banana , which has no seeds !
Orangutans eat bananas
Such a good female parent, don’t waste it! But at this time, people discovered a problem, that is, this banana has no seeds, how to breed ?
In the end, people can only take cuttings , that is, cut the rhizome from the mother plant, cultivate it in the soil , and grow into banana tree .
This is a asexually reproduced , constantly replicating a seedless banana plant. All bananas come from the same tree , and their genes are the same .
Before 1960, bananas all over the world came from the "Big Mike" family, which was a soft, waxy, sweet banana with a taste comparable to Haagen-Dazs.
"Big Mike" banana
However, it is a pity that we cannot eat this kind of banana at .
Bananas in the world now come from "Cavendish bananas" or " Huajiao".
Agricultural experts actually dislike "Huajiao" because its texture and taste are far inferior to "Big Mike".
Unfortunately, "Big Mike" is basically extinct.
Today's bananas are descendants of "Huajiao"
The Crisis of Bananas
Bananas all over the world essentially come from the same banana tree. They are copies, so there is no genetic diversity at all .
This leads to the fact that the No. 1 banana version "Big Mike" has very weak resistance . As long as a disease comes, it will almost be wiped out.
Sure enough, in 890 , "Big Mike" began to be infected with a disease - Banana Fusarium Wilt Race No. 1 (TR1) .
All the "Big Mac" bananas suffering from this disease died, not a single one was left alive .
Eventually, this blight swept the entire world of bananas, and "Big Mike" became extinct..
Banana Fusarium Wilt
Since 1960, people have been faced with the situation where there are no bananas to eat. It is agricultural experts who have worked hard to find a banana that can resist banana wilt.
This kind of banana grows in the orchard of Cavendish, the Duke of Devonshire, England, so it is named "Cavendish Banana", and because this banana was originally brought from the Qing Dynasty , it Also called " Huajiao ".
"Huajiao" is seedless like "Big Mike", so its cultivation method is no different from the past. It is still asexual cultivation of , using the method of " copy and paste ".
It’s just that now all the bananas in the world come from the Cavendish family’s “Hua Jiao” tree.
Banana tree
Since "Big Mike" was able to become extinct due to a disease, "Huajiao" will do the same, but the time has not come yet.
Sure enough, in 2014 , a new disease appeared one after another in banana plantations, Banana Fusarium Wilt Race No. 4 (TR4) , which is a new generation variant of the original Banana Fusarium Wilt Race No. 1. Known as "HIV in the banana world".
Since "Huajiao" all over the world comes from the same parent tree , , this time, it will repeat the mistakes of "Big Mike".
At the current rate of spread of banana fusarium wilt race 4, in another 30 years , all bananas in the world will be infected by and become extinct.
Because this disease is very unreasonable , any sterilization drug will not work. As long as a case appears in the soil , then this piece of land will no longer be able to grow bananas .
Bananas suffer from fusarium wilt
Agricultural scientists are trying to use gene editing to change the single gene pool of "Huajiao" , but the effect is very unsatisfactory.
It seems that the ending of banana is to be infected again and again.
Even if a new banana variety is developed, the asexual cultivation method that still needs to be copied is equivalent to repeating the path of "Big Mike" and "Huajiao" again.
This time it’s blight race No. 4. So next time when race No. 5 and race 6 come, will it be able to withstand it?
A diseased banana tree
A world without bananas
Some people will say that bananas are a kind of fruit , and they are artificially bred fruits . If they are extinct, it will not cause any ecological crisis. , the big deal is that we won’t eat them. Bananas.
Indeed, bananas are not some wild plants , and their extinction will not cause instability in the food chain , but for humans, we may lose a life-saving food .
Banana is the fourth most productive economic crop after wheat , rice, and corn .
Most of the places where bananas are grown are tropical countries. Many of them are not rich, and there are serious food problems. Therefore, bananas have become a local food.
Bananas can be eaten as food
A banana contains enough calories to maintain human life activities. In addition, it also contains calcium, phosphorus, iron, potassium and other elements, as well as carotene , vitamin B1, vitamin B2 , Vitamin C, etc.
If the whole world loses bananas, these areas will also lose their food and become complete starvation zones.
As mentioned earlier, many areas still retain the custom of building roofs with banana leaves.
This popular banana disease will make the entire banana tree wither and not a single leaf will remain. Then, the custom that has been passed down for thousands of years is likely to disappear.
This is a big turmoil for mankind.
Bananas on the shelves
Plantains and bananas
Some people will say that after banana disappears and , we still have plantain . Can't we use plantain instead of banana ?
Plantain is the same as banana, and both belong to the Musa order Musa family Musa member, but the species are different.
Plantains and bananas are indeed very similar, and the nutritional value of is not much different from . So why is popular in the world and , but few people care about the other ?
The reason is that the yield of bananas is higher than that of plantains. A plantain is smaller than a banana, so a handful of bananas weighs much more than a handful of plantains.
Plantains grow rounder and shorter
This is why bananas on the market can be sold for 2 or 3 yuan per catty, but it is difficult for bananas to sell for less than 6 yuan.
In addition, the adaptability of banana is not as good as that of banana . When the temperature is lower than 15℃, the growth of banana will stop. Basically it will not bear fruit but only grow leaves , so banana is often used as ornamental plant. planting.
Banana is different. It can be grown in tropical and subtropical areas, and even in temperate zones.
Don't forget that the current global banana's initial version "Huajiao" was found in Devon, England .
Banana tree
Britain is considered a high-latitude country . Bananas can actually grow and retain a trace of fire .
Therefore, although they are all children of the "Jiao family", the ability of bananas far exceeds the ability of bananas, occupying the top spot in the world fruit production .
You must know that the current "Huajiao" is considered to be the least delicious among bananas, but it is still tastier than most bananas , which shows its profound skills.
Fried Banana
However, it is still unknown whether the Banana family's bad luck can be resolved this time.
