Bananaman88

I apologize for detracting from the original intent of bananaman's post here. It just got me thinking and I had to make known my thoughts on this matter.[/quote]

Scot,

Hey, you didn't detract from the original intent whatsoever, so no worries there. My intent in posting was to provoke some stimulating talk on the subject, in whatever direction. In my opinion, that's one of the reasons this website exists.

I have to agree that the "little guy" may be left out in the cold on this. Alot of what they discussed in the article is very technical and tough for someone without a plant breeding background pull off, considering the limited means of some of the smaller home-producers in South and Central America. One can only hope that the smaller producers in South and Central America (and elsewhere) will benefit from the availability of disease-free stock at some point. Hopefully, we here in the States and abroad will also benefit from a wider availibility of types of fruit in our local supermarkets. My wife is involved in plant research and the bottom line for me is that biotechnology is already very prevalent and will become moreso, especially in Musa, so it seems. In my opinion, that could be a very good thing.

I'm not sure if Jarred would really want to make this site quite so political as to "take a stand" or issue a statement like you have mentioned. This is his baby and I don't pretend to speak for him in any way but it would be cool if we could get a little media attention on this. We are The International Banana Society afterall! I like the official-sounding name of that. Might carry some weight.