lorax

I've seen firsthand down here the problems with the Dole and Chiquita monoculture plantations - this year we had Black Sig run through and decimate a goodly amount of the crop. If Panama disease isn't far behind, then the Cavs may be done for. I personally don't think it's such a great loss, since we have a number of Panama resistant cultivars down here that both look and taste better than Cavs. And I think that Gabe's entirely correct, the North American banana consumer is generally woefully underinformed about the diversity of bananas. Once I tasted my first Reds and Oritos (both resistant cultivars, btw), I was hooked and I haven't eaten a Cav banana since....

It gives me the heebie jeebies to think about creating mutant transgenic Cavs just so that the monoculture system, which is tremendously unhealthy for both the land and the plants, can continue unabated. Better to promote and breed strains that are already resistant!