Posted on 12/17/2013 9:56:16 AM PST by Red Badger
'National emergency' declared in Costa Rica, one of the biggest suppliers Country produces 1.2 million tons of bananas each year - one in five could be ruined by plagues of mealybugs and scale insects Elsewhere, banana-eating fungus from Asia and Australia is spreading
Plagues of insects and a spreading fungus are threatening the world's supply of bananas, researchers have warned.
A state of 'national emergency' has been declared in Costa Rica, one of the world's biggest suppliers, while separately a banana-eating fungus from Asia is believed to be spreading.
Officials in the Central American country of Costa Rica fear that one in five bananas could have been ruined by insects this year. The country last year supplied 1.2 million tons of the fruit worldwide.
The director of the country’s agriculture ministry’s State Phytosanitary Services (SFE), Magda Gonzalez, told the Tico Times the rising number of mealybugs and scale insects on the country’s Atlantic coast regions can be explained by rising temperatures along with changing rain patterns.
She said these conditions could shorten the insects’ reproduction cycle by one third.
‘I can tell you with near certainty that climate change is behind these pests,’ she told the paper.
SFE has estimated that the pests have affected around 24,000 hectares of banana field in the Central American country.
Last year, Costa Rica exported more than 1.2 million tons of bananas, valued at more than $815 million, or around £500 million.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
“Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.”
This means that the condom demonstrators will have to use cucumbers.
Magda Gonzalez has destroyed any shred of credibility that she may have had by being “certain” that this was caused by the climate change hoax
or zucchinis................
She’s one banana short of a bunch.................
and you can find them in the dark...................
Thanks, Cosmo.
This is all your fault...
Scientists are close to bringing back the original banana from the 1950’s by adding resistance to the fungus via genetic manipulation of the plant.
Source: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v488/n7410/full/nature11241.html
Blame it on cloning.
The vast majority of bananas are not grown from seed. The banana plant reproduces by creating a new plant that grows off of the roots of the original plant. This new plant is separated from its “parent” and planted elsewhere. This process is repeated until you have a very large grove of genetically identical banana plants. Because of the lack of genetic diversity, any fungus, disease, or pest that can successfully attack one banana plant in the grove, can do the same to the remaining banana plants.
The lab workers are already lining up for samples...
Glad I grow my own. Candy apple bananas are the best, too.
We've got plenty of bananas here in the US. Didn't just over half of us vote for Obama?
I’ve seen that sort of announcement from banana interests several times over the past couple of decades. Be very afraid! Buy and hoard bananas right now, or you won’t get any—ever! Your grandkids and great-grandkids won’t know what a banana looks like! It’s the end of the world!
If bananas become extinct, Nabisco will go bankrupt.............
Paw Paws my friend. They taste like bananas and can be substituted for any banana recipe. They grow wild in GA.
Sorry. I repent in dust and ashes, but it is probably too late.
This news could set off monkey riots at the zoo.
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