Fungus threatens top banana : Nature News & Comment
Gmo issues are hitting where I live, just as gmo solutions may be needed in the near future, this is something I posted on a local site in Hawaii where any future GM crops were banned on our island, despite GM papaya having saved the industry, with seed developed at a University and given to farmers for free.
As the above article explains, musa acuminata, which all eating bananas are at least partially, or in the case of cavendish types, totally hybridized from, is genetically resistant to Foc TR4. This fungal disease is spreading around the world and is in China and the Phillipines. It will get here just like Foc TR1 did and is still here in Hawaii. Inserting this naturally occurring gene from the very plant all bananas come from originally via GM technology will be able to save these bananas and thus plantations. But now this is illegal. Instead, cavendish growers will have to resort to massive use of toxic fungicides, which will only slow the spread and not solve the problem. How anyone could oppose putting a banana gene from a banana into another banana directly through GM is beyond me. Because of the GM fear mongering, we could have a far better tasting banana with a much smaller environmental impact grown around the world, but we will not, because consumers would not likely buy a GM banana even if the only modification is inserting a naturally existing banana gene.
This is the sad reality of our new GM crop ban. Hooray, more pesticides! I for one would have no problem with putting a naturally occurring TR4 disease resistant gene into Gros Michel so that GM could again become the dominant banana.