Major food source disappearing?

[alfredo]

I live on bananas. A day doesn't pass without a banana. What would the world be like without the banana? Maybe we will find out some day soon.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn9152-a-future-with-no-bananas.html

Go bananas while you still can. The world's most popular fruit and the fourth most important food crop of any sort is in deep trouble. Its genetic base, the wild bananas and traditional varieties cultivated in India, has collapsed.

More at link. (short article)

[Inland]

1. Bananas have been killed off before.

Or a strain of bananas have been killed off. What we eat today is the substitute to the bananas that were killed by some sort of disease.

[lonestarnot]

2. And what will the monkey think?

[rooboy]

3. They've almost tripled in price in Australia...

the cyclone that wiped out North Queensland obliterated most of our national banana crop. We can't import any from overseas because of quarantine.

[SmokingJacket]

4. They are the cheapest fruit available here.

Usually between .49 and .69 cents a pound, versus apples at 1.49 a pound... and weirdly, apples are grown right here in NY state.

[bullimiami]

5. bananas are like .29 / pound usually here in miami.

ive got bananas in the yard but i want to put plantains in too.

[noonwitch]

6. Same here, 49 cents a pound at Meijer

I'm not too worried about the die off of bannana trees.

[Catherine Vincent]

7. I love bananas.

Good source of potassium.

[mcscajun]

8. We've got bigger problems food-wise.

Maize in global gene bank crisis

WITH the future of bananas in the balance (see A future without bananas?), there's more worrying news for another major food resource. Maize, the world's most widely grown crop, is facing its own genetic meltdown

The world's crop gene banks are in crisis, a meeting of maize researchers and organisations in Texcoco, Mexico, was told last week. At least half the seed stocks are unable to germinate because of incorrect storage, with potentially dire consequences for the world's food supply.

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg19025513.200&feedId=online-news_rss20

One of my favorite fruits AND one of my favorite vegetables? GAH!!!!

[alfredo]

9. That's about half my diet.