# Will Bananas go extinct? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 22, 2006, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-bananas-go-extinct/357837 "2006-05-22T23:33:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2006, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-bananas-go-extinct/357837/41 "2006-05-24T02:10:36Z")
> [@Pushkin](#): > > More importantly, what else would manufacturers put into baby food desserts? They’ll have to step up the proportions of rat filth and insect parts to compensate. ---
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2006, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-bananas-go-extinct/357837/42 "2006-05-24T03:11:27Z")
> [@YaWanna](#): > > if bananas become extinct, we shall no longer need to know how to defend ourselves against attackers armed with them. yes, but we will still have to practice defending against passion fruit, and even pointy sticks. [/ obligatory monty python reference] ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2006, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-bananas-go-extinct/357837/43 "2006-05-24T19:27:48Z")
> [@JThunder](#): > > Good grief. I remember when bananas used to roam the wild in great big herds. If we had only known. Herd o’ bananas? 'course I’ve heard of bananas, whaddya think I am - a nut? ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2006, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-bananas-go-extinct/357837/44 "2006-05-24T22:22:45Z")
So then this must all relate to where **Peak Banana** gets his/her name. ---
**Author:** ![LiveOnAPlane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3d9bf3/32.png) [@LiveOnAPlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LiveOnAPlane)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2006, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-bananas-go-extinct/357837/45 "2006-05-24T22:54:54Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > Remember back 30 years ago when the only variety of apples in the stores were Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, and Granny Smith? Now you go to the grocery store and you’ll find 20 varieties of apple. > > Today you go to the grocery store and 99% of the bananas are Cavendish. They might have a few plaintains, or red bananas, or baby bananas, but most places only stock Cavendish. > > 20 years from now, when grocery stores stock 20 different banana varieties from the endless diversity available in the tropics, we’ll look back at this Cavendish blight and fall to our knees in thanks for what we are about to recieve. Yep, to that. The bestust EVER bananas I ever ate were these miniature ones my wife brought back from Kosrae (I think they changed the name to something like Kusae a few years back) Not much longer than your finger. Delish. ---
**Author:** ![LiveOnAPlane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3d9bf3/32.png) [@LiveOnAPlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LiveOnAPlane)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2006, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-bananas-go-extinct/357837/46 "2006-05-24T22:58:06Z")
Dang it! Just dang it! The umpteenth time I hit submit instead of preview! Sorry. Also, I’ve had some (also smallish) bananas that were kind of a red color, but don’t remember where they came from. Seems to me, there are lots of alternatives to the Cavendish. Anyway, I sure hope so. ---
**Author:** ![photopat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e95f7d/32.png) [@photopat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/photopat)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2006, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-bananas-go-extinct/357837/47 "2006-05-24T23:03:41Z")
> [@LiveOnAPlane](#): > > Also, I’ve had some (also smallish) bananas that were kind of a red color, but don’t remember where they came from. Around here they come from the produce market. They are tasty little things. ---
**Author:** ![Whammo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8dc957/32.png) [@Whammo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whammo)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2006, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-bananas-go-extinct/357837/48 "2006-05-24T23:14:32Z")
[QUOTE=qwest] Bananas are only edible during an approximate 48 hour window. Green bananas - not good eating. Ripe bananas - not good eating. During transition from green to ripe before any brown spots start to appear. Ambrosia. QUOTE] OH! Did you know that you’re wrong?!? 😉 its true… bananananas are best with brown spots… more converted sugars… thats no opinion i’m afraid. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2006, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-bananas-go-extinct/357837/49 "2006-05-25T00:12:00Z")
(a) Agreed, Cavendishes are lame as bananas go; OTOH, off-season or after hurricanes even we in banana-growing lands have to import these mass market freaks. Their main virtue is they ship well; but they’ve been bred into genetic indistinctness to the point that for years a pandemic blight been a real threat. (b) Y’people don’t get it. Green bananas are eaten _cooked_. Or at least pickled. © An article in _Smithsonian_ last year claimed that when you count the varieties of banana and plantain together, it adds up to the #4 dietary starch source in the world, after rice, wheat and maize. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2006, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-bananas-go-extinct/357837/50 "2006-05-25T00:46:47Z")
> [@Spectre of Pithecanthropus](#): > > So then this must all relate to where **Peak Banana** gets his/her name. Guilty as charged. 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-bananas-go-extinct/357837.md?page=2)