The banana industry, which is heavily dependent on the Cavendish variety, has been approaching a cliff as the voracious TR4 fungus, immune to darn near everything, has been invading the various plantations world-wide and destroying all the commercial bananas in its path. However, as WaPo reports, a chance finding of a wild banana immune to TR4 was found. So did the banana industry leap in feet first, wild to save itself? Not so much:
It took years to isolate the gene responsible for the resistance. Then, in 2004, a breakthrough: [James] Dale’s lab identified candidate genes worth testing. Over three more years of painstaking work, Dale inserted genes from the M. acuminata subspecies into cells from a Cavendish, developing them first in tiny test tubes, then growing whole plants. It takes about a year to grow a plant with roots that can be placed in the soil.
But despite the clear and present danger of TR4, no one wanted to pay for a field trial; banana producers mistakenly believed they could manage the disease and keep it in check. So it was another three or four years before Dale could cobble together funding and find a facility where he could grow the plants to produce transgenic bananas. He was able to plant a small field trial in 2012, which lasted three years. …
Ironically, a major obstacle to replacing today’s Cavendish with a TR4-resistant strain is the banana industry, which for the most part has dropped out of doing research, says Ploetz. William Goldfield, director of corporate communications for Dole Food, one of the largest producers and importers of bananas, said in an email that the company is “looking at how to develop a disease resistant banana through crop improvement and plant breeding methods,” but he didn’t go into specifics. Requests for comment from the three other top banana producers went unanswered.
I’m sort of hoping the current banana producers get kicked out on their collective ears and are replaced with a new collection of companies that are actually willing to do more than just harvest bananas, sell them, and collect profits. Of course, maybe the WaPo story doesn’t properly portray the industry, in which case I’d retract my statement. But unwilling to fund some simple field trials? Come on, guys. That’s about as short-sighted as trying to put a price on civilization. Existential threats call for covering the hole safely, not trying to edge around the bottomless pit.
