20070128   

Michael considered fate at 14:49   |   Permalink   |   Post a Comment

Fuck, I hate olives. What's up with that? I'm all for salty goodness - even more so then the next guy, probably. My heart sits here pounding at an accelerated 80bpm just thinking about it.. either that or it's all the salt I had yesterday. But something about olives - in fact any fruit with a pit really - just turns me off. They have that same weird and off feel to me as lychees. Call me crazy, I'll just stick with my banana here.


ripped from raymi
And speaking of bananas, I hear they are slowly becoming extinct. I started hearing about this from a number of various sources, but all of them about as reliable as I am. So I took it upon myself to do some research.

It took all of three seconds to freshen up on the plight of the modern banana. At the root of the problem is the fact that there is no genetic diversity. Hitler, roll over in your grave and take note: Because 99% of the bananas on the market today are basically genetically identical, when a disease comes all that is able to attack one of them, that disease is able to attack all of them. And that, apparently, is what is going on:

.. in 1992, a [fungus] was discovered in Asia. Since then, Panama disease Race 4 has wiped out plantations in Indonesia, Malaysia, Australia and Taiwan, and it is now spreading through much of Southeast Asia. It has yet to hit Africa or Latin America, but most experts agree that it is coming. “Given today’s modes of travel, there’s almost no doubt that it will hit the major Cavendish crops,” says Randy Ploetz, the University of Florida plant pathologist who identified the first Sumatran samples of the fungus.

Despite the fact this is the second time this has happened - apparently we used to eat a different banana in the mid-20th century which was wiped out by the 60's - people seem to be slightly more prepared this time around. But as usual, there is debate on the best approach:

A global effort is now under way to save the fruit—an effort defined by two opposing visions of how best to address the looming crisis. On one side are traditional banana growers .. who raise experimental breeds in the fields, trying to create a replacement plant that looks and tastes so similar to the Cavendish that consumers won’t notice the difference. On the other side are bioengineers .. who, armed with a largely decoded banana genome, are manipulating the plant’s chromosomes, sometimes crossing them with DNA from other species, with the goal of inventing a tougher Cavendish that will resist Panama disease and other ailments.

It may be to late, say some, but at least people are paying attention in ways they seemingly failed to do in the late 50's.

And I think this story, while still unfolding, is a bit of a shining light in the darkness of all this terrorist warfare, oil-mongering executives, and puppet presidents. It's an example of the differences between the 60's and today. That all that activism could do little to effect real change; a sort of motionless agenda; a hippy chained to a tree, a man lying in front of a bulldozer. But these are all stepping stones and we would not be where we are today without those potrait-like efforts, standing still against the tide of time.

Do we use more energy per capita then we did in the 60's? Sure. Do more of us drive more inefficient vehicles more often? Sure. But there is a collective intelligence that now permeates the culture, especially the younger crowds, and it is with this awareness that more motion is made. Emissions testing, green energy, even large companies are putting on the pants of environmental sustainability (see: Business Week's podcast). Cynics abound of course, but one has to look towards the positive if one wants to keep from drowning themselves in the drink. I, myself, while perhaps a loud-mouthed cynic, am quietly optimistic about our future here on earth.


With that, let us all think good things and hope possitive thoughts for ye 'ol banana, that of the "quite possibly the world’s perfect food" moniker and whose many uses may astound you. Because afterall, we do seem to enjoy them:

Americans eat more bananas than any other kind of fresh fruit, averaging about 26.2 pounds of them per year, per person (apples are a distant second, at 16.7 pounds).