paghat wrote:

In article , EV wrote:

escapee wrote:


You are also incorrect about "profit motive" since many organic farms
are very
small, and sell their produce at farmers markets, not on grocery shelves. I
have news, the grocery stores hike up the prices, not the growers. For
instance, bananas. If you see the word organic on a banana, it's
generally a
useless term. Bananas normally never need pesticides to produce.

I don't know where you got your information, but it's not correct, I'm
afraid. Emile
Frison is one of the world's leading banana researchers, and according
to Dr. Frison:

www.futureharvest.org/pdf/banana.pdf
[]
Bananas are threatened by the rapidly spreading fungus Black Sigatoka
that has been
undermining banana production for the past three decades. It has reached
almost every
banana-growing region in the world and typically reduces yield by 30 to
50 percent.
Other
diseases and pests that cripple yields include a soil fungus, parasitic
worms, weevils,
and
viruses such as the Banana Streak Virus, which lurks inside the banana
genome itself.
Commercial growers can afford and rely extensively on chemical
fungicides, often
spraying their crops 50 times per year—the equivalent of spraying nearly
once per week,
which is about 10 times the average for intensive agriculture in
industrialized
countries. Chemical inputs account for 27 percent of the production cost
of export
bananas. Agricultural chemicals used on bananas for diseases and pests
have harmed the
health of plantation workers and the environment.
“If we can devise resistant banana varieties, we could possibly do away
with fungicides
and pesticides all together,” said Frison. “In addition, resistant
strains are essential
for small-holder farmers, who cannot afford the expensive chemicals to
begin with. When
Black Sigatoka strikes, farmers can do little more than watch their
plants die.
Increased hunger can swiftly follow.”
[]
www.futureharvest.org/pdf/banana.pdf

EV

I've additionally heard the domestic banana really is endangered because
its own genetic material has narrowed to a couple strains developed for
large size & toughness in shipping & physical apeparance (not so much for
flavor) while wild bananas have vanished with loss of habitat. Some worry
that eventually corn will will follow for the same reasons. Without
careful preservation of a series of wild forms, the selectively bred &
genetically altered crops eventually meet a disease that takes them down.
Without the original seed stocks which can restore genetic strength,
that's the end of a staple crop. At best there'll be massive if temporary
crop die-offs equivalent of the Great Potato Famine.

-paghat the ratgirl


Yes, that's correct. There was an excellent article on it in New Scientist in the
fall of 2002 IIRC.

EV


--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
Visit the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com