The message
from "Sue & Bob Hobden" contains these words:

With the news that our eating bananas (Cavendish strain) are under real
threat in various ways, see

http://news.bbc.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2664373.stm

should we be worried about the continued health of our ornamental varieties
or are they resistant to blight etc ?
Don't want to lose our Musa lasiocarpa just yet.

Copied from uk.food+drink where this quote from the New Scientist
was posted:-
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The New Scientist article, which I have now read, is not at all
frightening.

It says:
"The present banana clones were found 10,000 years ago and have not changed
since then. The wild, inedible, relative of the domesticated banana is
doing just fine.
We have a problem with lack of genetic diversity in the banana, there are
fungal diseases which could wipe out the present *single* clone produced
commercially.
There is too much fungicide used on present crops, to keep the diseases at
bay.
Work is required to breed new clones, resistant to these fungi.
Nobody, commercially, likes the first new clone which have been produced.
We changed clone in the 1960s because of a similar problem. I did not
notice any change in bananas in the 1960s."
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Jennifer