Bananacasts

The Voice Of America has five podcasts/articles (I have no idea if the articles and the podcasts say the same things, as I haven't made it very far into either at this stage) on bananas:

Banana Mooted As Top Crop In Africa (1 of 5)
Disease Threatens Banana Industry (2 of 5)
Top Trade Lawyer Doubts Feasibility of East African Banana Exports to Europe (3 of 5)
Governments and Global Businesses Urged to Help African Banana Sector (4 of 5)
Sweeping Reforms Needed to Improve African Banana Industry (5 of 5)

I've thought a little bit about doing a fruit breeding podcast, but I'm not convinced it's worth the bother.

A whole bunch (er, hand?) of banana articles

The New Agriculturist has a series of articles on African bananas:

African banana--on an upward curve (New Agriculturist)

Brought to my attention, as is so often the case, by the Agrobiodiversity Blog (they even threw in a bonus story on carotenoids in bananas...)

Rumors of the bananas' death have been greatly exaggerated?

Found this today thanks to the wonder of Google News:

Banana Shortage? Nothing to Worry About (Medicine Hat News)

This of course misunderstands (or maybe just ignores) the biggest threat posed by banana diseases. Pesticides and cultural practices can probably preserve banana production for those of us in developed countries, where a few cents difference in price doesn't even register. But bananas are also a staple crop for millions of people, many of whom are already in a very precarious position. Even a slight decrease in yield could mean going hungry, or it could also mean the elimination of the what little surplus they had to barter or sell to buy other supplies, pay for schooling or medicine, etc.

(Sorry I haven't been around--just been distracted.)

The International Banana Society

A whole bunch of banana posts here lately, so I might as well break out another long forgotten find from the bookmarks:

The International Banana Society

The site is basically just forums, but those forums are big, active, and packed with information and photos. I'm not in a place to really grow bananas (I did have an Abyssinian one in Florida before I moved to California, though) so I can't make use of a lot of it, but it seems like a big bunch of passionate, well-informed people.

I'm enjoying reading about mutant banana sports.

Update: Check it out—it's Big Mike!

While we're on the subject of bananas...

Check this out...

Hawai'ian Plantain (No Fear Entertaining)

In related news, I accidentally made some awesome banana bread recently. (I say "accidentally" because I kept screwing things up--and when I made another loaf a little later and actually was careful, the second loaf was nowhere near as good as the first).

Dan Koeppel's Banana Blog

One of the many things I've bookmarked with the intention of posting here and then neglected for months is Dan Koeppel's blog about bananas:

BananaBook.org

Dan's the author of a recent book, Banana: The Fate of the Fruit that Changed the World, which chronicles the many disease and diversity issues facing the banana that we've touched on from time to time here before. (I was excited when the book was announced and had actually hoped to review the book here, but after I bought my Kindle I went on a little Amazon spending binge and now I'm laying off the book buying for a little bit).
The blog deals with many of the same issues as the book, and I would guess it was set up to promote it, but even if you haven't read the book (like me, except for the beginning, thanks to the wonder of the sample chapter) it's still entertaining as a general purpose banana blog.

The site also features a rather inexplicable banana themed picture.

Dan also scores points for dropping me a nice note when I added him as a friend on FaceBook, and I'm a sucker for authors who actually write back. (Granted I only wrote him a sentence or two, and he wrote about the same back).

Update: I'm feeling so positive about this website that I've decided to stick it in the sidebar...

Bananapocalypse Now (or at least soon)

I've actually already posted about this, but 'Bananapocalypse' is such a cool made-up word I'll reward it with a link:

Bananapocalypse: a favorite fruit slips towards extinction (Plenty Magazine)

This got me thinking...has anybody out there actually tried a 'Gros Michel' banana (the variety our current 'Cavendish' replaced)? I'd love to know how different it really is.

Bananas on the Brink

This is an older article, and I feel like I linked to it before, but if so I can't seem to find it. I meant to write a bigger piece on this issue, but I just stumbled across it again, and might as well link to it, since it tells the story at least as well as I could.


Can This Fruit Be Saved? (Popular Science)


(Also, some recent news on progress against Black Sigatoka disease. Isn't "Black Sigatoka" an evil-sounding name? It sounds like a villain from a fantasy novel or something.)