Goodbye, Cavendish
Variety isn’t just the spice of life — it’s a necessity, especially in maintaining a healthy food supply. Witness the dire fate of the Cavendish banana.
It has been a staple on Canadian grocers’ shelves for the past half-century. Indeed, about 99 per cent of all bananas eaten in the developed world today are Cavendish. But not for a great deal longer, according to troubling new research.
Avirulent fungus is preying on the Cavendish variety and a recent study, published in the scientific journal PLOS Pathogens, has found no known way to cure or contain this infection. It means the banana we enjoy today is probably on its way to extinction.
It’s happened before. Before the Cavendish dominated the global market, the variety of choice was the Gros Michel, a sweeter, creamier, more flavourful banana than its successor. Starting at the beginning of the last century, however, the Gros Michel came under attack from the Panama disease fungus. It was effectively wiped out by the 1960s.
The Cavendish assumed dominance because it was resistant to Panama disease, but now an aggressive strain called Tropical Race 4 is preying on the Cavendish too. It has ravaged banana plantations in South Asia, China, the Philippines, the Middle East, Australia and parts of Africa. When the toxic strain finally hits Latin America, which produces the vast majority of bananas grown for export, it will probably eradicate the Cavendish.
The future of a multibillion-dollar industry is at stake in a crisis that underlines the perils of “monoculture” — the modern practice of cultivating a single, highly profitable crop or type of livestock at the expense of a healthy variety. The resulting lack of genetic diversity makes these specialized stocks highly vulnerable to pests, disease and climate change.
It’s not just bananas. Throughout history, according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, about 7,000 species of plants have been cultivated for consumption. But today, 95 per cent of human food energy needs are derived from just 30 crops. And four — rice, wheat, corn and potatoes — now deliver more than 60 per cent of global food energy intake. Furthermore, production is centred on relatively few, highly popular variants within those four categories.
Loss of the Cavendish could be a foretaste of a far worse disaster. Producers in Canada, and around the world, would do well to heed this lesson and diversify their crops. They will be protecting both their long-term interests and the global food supply.