My thoughts:
This is a really fascinating journalistic piece about the current plight of bananas, specifically the cavendish banana.
I actually really like cavendish bananas so the idea that we could eventually not see them anymore on grocery shelves in the future is a little sad. But it also makes me curious about the one that it replaced, the Gros Michel, which they noted tasted better.
Some of the other bananas featured look absolutely delicious and I'd love to see more diversity of offerings in the future!
Pastelgoth.net
Ace's #1 waifu for laifu
Zerogami's cool mom
Certified old person
It's really unfortunate that one disease among plants can wipe out an entire plantation within a few months to a year. It is also extremely unfortunate that almost the entire world's population of bananas being produced happen to be the same species, therefore are all in danger of contracting said disease.
It's a mixed bag isn't it? On one hand, that's a lot of people who could loose their livelihoods. On the other... their lives just being bananas, is that really want they want in the first place? It's kind of concerning, isn't it? IDK maybe I'm thinking too much.
I'm not that big on bananas in the first place, so different strains are fine in my book.
i really want to try the other types of bananas! it's so unfortunate that the western world has been so sold on one type of banana that it's so hard to find the other kind where i live. it also makes me really sad to see how unsustainable the current system is, in so many ways? i have a lot of feelings that are a Big Bummer so i don't want to get into them in depth here, but the colonialism and exploitation of indigenous people for the sake of producing the cheapest product possible hits really close to home for me.
Elijah wrote: ↑Fri Aug 12, 2022 8:27 pm
i have a lot of feelings that are a Big Bummer so i don't want to get into them in depth here, but the colonialism and exploitation of indigenous people for the sake of producing the cheapest product possible hits really close to home for me.
I feel that, the video hit me hard seeing the devastated Filpino farmers, and knowing what I do about the conditions over there is broke my heart. I have family there and they do struggle. Hopefully having this disease problem twice will encourage the industry to shift more toward offering different types.
Pastelgoth.net
Ace's #1 waifu for laifu
Zerogami's cool mom
Certified old person
I remember learning about this banana thing a while ago and it's so weird to me that what we eat in the US is the The Banana and that The Banana could basically just get wiped out commercially. (Which I guess already happened with the Gros Michel and that's why we're on the Cavendish now, so who knows what will happen.) I agree with everyone else that it sucks we're apparently so dependent on this single strain, I would love to try other banana types/have access to them more easily. I feel like it'd have to go hand in hand with better agricultural practices/not exploiting foreign countries which would be a win all around if it could ever happen :/
The video was really interesting! One of the things especially interesting to me was the birth of the term "Banana Republic" and it's meaning! Why the hell would they name a clothing store after a terrible meaning like that?!
Another really interesting thing to me was how the workers actually cut down the bananas! It looks like a very hardworking process, but they make it seem so easy. And there are TONS of bananas growing on the trees, they way they just chop them down! And the assembly line type of thing when they finally harvest all the bananas was pretty cool, too!
My audio went out after about 5 minutes in, so that's all I got to watch, but since it's in my history now, I think I'll go back to it and watch the whole thing once I can restart my laptop.
I did know some of these infos on the banana already. TBH as it is our food industry is pretty uh... terrible I guess would be to say. A lot of food and crops become so focused on some areas that if something were to happen, well everyone becomes fked. Cavindish is still yum yum tho. However, I find it weird that they say "its weird to eat a green banana." nah bro, yellow banana are imo not actually good tasting (for me). Green is the best flavor: stiff, harder, not as sweet. Perfect balance imo. The comment tho of the bananas and trying to mix with the cavindish, i think its quite possible though. GMO and Hyrbids are pretty much how all our modern food has gone. But who knows if they ever find a disease free banana though.
Also horray for plant sex.
One comment added the part they said, "transforming forest into factories". You would think "well its still green, its practically farm land right?" but no, not really. You clear out forest for farms, it does start to effect the land over time for sure.
