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October 15, 2003
go better bananas.
My first response after having read this article was thinking that there cannot possibly be an organization devoted to developing new bananas. That just seems incredibly out of the ordinary. Well, a quick search for a few points of interest from the article on google.com led me to the International Network for the Improvement of Banana and Plantain (INIBAP) website. (I was wrong.) There is an organization devoted to producing better bananas. The mission statement on the INIBAP site is as follows: INIBAP works to sustainably increase the productivity of bananas and plantains grown on smallholdings for domestic consumption and for export markets.
The next step, for me, was to find out what a plantain is, because I really didn’t know. Dictionary.com says a plantain is "a large, tropical, treelike herb (Musa paradisiaca) of southeast Asia, resembling the banana and bearing similar fruit and that the fruit of this plant, used as a staple food in tropical regions." That helps me understand why it is that there is such a concern about the well-being of the banana and plantains--this is how many people survive.
Apparently, the Dr. Emile Frison that is mentioned to be in charge of the INIBAP is a recently appointed member of International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI). The article I read on his appointment to the role of Director General Designate says that there are 27 members on the team from 14 different countries trying to decode the genetic makeup of the banana in order to make a better banana. Frison has spent 18 years in the area of plant related genetics research. So, this guy is credible.
There are many articles also discussing the various affectations mentioned (Panama disease and Black sigatoka; pests) that affect the annual yield of the crops. Considering the fact that there are other things that can harm plants, outside of pesticides and the pests themselves, I found it interesting that indeed disease does affect plants, which in turn, affects hunger in countries where these crops are a main source of nourishment. That is tragic.
Initially, looking at the title of this article and just considering the subject material, I really thought that this was some kind of hoax, or a bad joke in the making at least. Honestly, "Bananas could split for good" is a terrible title for such a serious article, if the seriousness is what the source is trying to display (I'm assuming, however, that they weren't concerned with seriousness--they were concerned about the article being read in general, and a catchy title helped that, in my opinion). BBC even published a second article going into the details for the decoding of the banana's genes. The only reason a news source would normally consider doing another article on a hoax is to clarify or apologize for the misunderstanding. The second article proves to me (as if all the other research didn't) that this is NOT a hoax, because who would have the gall to put out an additional false article? Hopefully no one working at BBC because I'm sure that would cause problems...
(The continued reading on this is simply a list of links for all the sites I used in research.)
Posted by KarissaKilgore at October 15, 2003 3:58 PM
Comments
Great use of your blog to chronicle your research. I'm impressed! Keep up the good work.
Posted by: Dennis G. Jerz at October 17, 2003 5:08 PM
Thank you very much. I'm *gasp* enjoying some of this work. Could you tell I enjoyed doing the banana presentation? :)
Posted by: Karissa at October 20, 2003 3:19 PM
Just doing some random web surfing and noticed that somebody praised your research skills...
Posted by: Dennis G. Jerz at January 6, 2005 2:29 PM
Thank you SO much, Dr. Jerz! I was so excited that I posted about it...
I've got to know--how did you find that?
Posted by: Karissa at January 6, 2005 8:28 PM