Artful Voyage: On the subject of Bananas

Banana - noun. An edible fruit; typically yellow,green, or brown; grown on herbaceous plants.

Banana Dog - noun. A dog made from the edible yellow fruit, banana.

Banana House - noun. A house made from a banana

Bananas have many functions, they can be used as works of art, in construction of plastics, and even skin care.

Bananas have been the main focused of songs....

and bananas can be turned into just about anything!

But did you know that bananas are on their way to becoming extinct?

This great and versatile fruit is becoming extinct for being so great, claims researcher Dan Koeppel, in his book Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World.

The common yellow banana that people know in the US, Canada, and Europe, called the Cavendish, is the most eaten fruit in the United States because it is nutritious, convenient, and affordable. Over 100 billion Cavendish Bananas are consumed annually worldwide. These bananas are perfect from a genetic standpoint; every banana is a genetic twin to the first one found in Southeast Asia which was brought to a Caribbean botanic garden in the early 20th century.

The banana has become too perfect after fifteen thousand years of human cultivation. Bananas lacked genetic diversity which led it to be virus prone. A fungus that infects a plantation of bananas could infect them all. Imagine a world without bananas.

No more banana phones...