Bananas are one of the world’s most widely available fresh fruits. They are particularly popular with children and are a great source of potassium. They come in a peel that serves as their own counter-top storable, easy to open, “biodegradable packaging.” In the US they are typically quite affordable and often serve as “loss leaders” in grocery stores.
This isn’t the first time that the global banana industry has been threatened by this disease. In the early 20It was released by Frank Silver and Irving Cohn and subsequently recorded by many leading music stars. It was inspired by the way that a certain Greek fruit seller started his answer to every question with “Yes” even when the answer was “No.” It was an awkward way to say that he was unable to stock bananas – probably because of this disease.
There are five potential strategies that could be pursued alone or in various combinations as a means of dealing with the threat of TR-4 in both the export and local banana industries: Chance Mutation, Conventional Breeding, Cisgenics, Genome Editing and Biological Treatments. Those are described below along with some further steps that could make the final system more resilient.