4 ms·

Lack of genetic diversity is also the reason the banana is in danger (again). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panama_disease http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panama_d

• CamperBob2 13y ago
  At this point I'm suffering "alarm fatigue," having been told all my life that $food_X is endangered and will soon vanish from the Earth. It never seems to happen as long as there's still a market for $food_X. Life will find a way, and if it doesn't, science will.
  • yareally 13y ago
    We actually already lost a variety of bananas back in the 50s due to Panama Disease and it never recovered. The kind we eat now are reported to be less flavorful yet were resistant to the disease up until recently. There's plenty of other varieties of bananas, but the ones sold in most groceries (with the exception of a few exotics like red bananas) are all the same because they're durable and easy to grow/ship compared to others. Also chestnuts have yet to make a real comeback since being nearly wiped out in North America[1]. Although it's not a plant, people used to eat passenger pigeons quite a bit in the 19th century and science has yet to bring those back. Edit: Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World[2], is a great book on the history of the banana for anyone interested. Delves into the good and the bad of the banana and also how it shaped American Foreign Policy and Central/South America. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_chestnut http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_chestnut [2] http://www.amazon.com/Banana-Fate-Fruit-Changed-World/dp/0452290082 http://www.amazon.com/Banana-Fate-Fruit-Changed-World/dp/045...