Can we still save the banana?
NUGGET-FRIENDLY FRUITS 1/6. Around the world, the most widely eaten banana is the Cavendish. This variety was a boon to the banana industry until, on every continent, a fungus began devastating plantations one by one. The German weekly “Die Zeit” asks: should we say goodbye to this fruit as we know it?
At the gates of Kampala, the capital of Uganda, a guard sits on a plastic chair, a rifle slung over his shoulder. Day and night, the banana plantation is monitored. To pass, you need a permit. Rows and rows of banana trees grow as far as the eye can see, like almost everywhere in the highlands of East Africa. But no one is allowed to eat these bananas. Scientists have modified their genetic makeup to make them resistant to pests. And with these banana trees grows the hope of saving the banana.
This field in Kampala is an attempt to counter a threat that, in the worst-case scenario, would cause a global food catastrophe. Bananas could disappear not only from our supermarkets [in Europe], but also from markets in Africa and Latin America, regions where they are a staple food. A microscopic fungus attacks the plantations, condemning the banana trees to drying out and rotting.
We Europeans play a central role in this tragedy. Because although there are over a thousand varieties of bananas, we practically only eat one. All the bananas we find in German supermarkets are
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