In today's newsletter:

• 🍌 The big idea: The crop going extinct right before our eyes

• 🌎 Natural wonders: A Serbian sunrise and a strange bird courtship dance

🍌 The End of Bananas

The banana as we know it might not be around after another decade. But it's not the first time our faithful yellow fruit bit the dust.

Maybe you've heard rumors about bananas of old — the idea that modern bananas have somehow gotten less "banana-y" over time. Or maybe, like me, you've wondered why artificial banana flavor and real bananas taste so much different.

In this case, both questions are answered by the same fruit. The laboratories creating artificial banana flavor didn't miss the mark. They created a flavor for an entirely different banana — the same banana that infamously tastes more "banana-y".

Unfortunately, the tastier relative of our modern banana went commercially extinct faster than a cartoon would slip on its peel. It's one of the best examples of why monoculture farms are doomed to fail.

Global banana trade used to be dominated by a strong-flavored, sweet variety called the Gros Michel (the Big Mike). As banana plantations for the Gros Michel expanded from the 1830s, farmers in Panama began to see a pesky disease wipe out entire crop fields.

Panama Disease, named after its origin, would become the bane of the variety. Why?

Gros Michel bananas are the epitome of monoculture crops. To create the most predictable, uniform selection for grocery stores, all commercial bananas are grown from clones. In other words, all the bananas grown on these plantations are from the same plant.

What happens when every plant has the same genetics?

They're all equally susceptible to the same diseases. Farms without genetic diversity are like children without immune systems. When they get sick, the consequences are disastrous.

It was no different for the Gros Michel banana. The Race1 version of Panama Disease spread from monoculture farm to monoculture farm. With nothing to stop it, entire countries watched their banana production drop to zero.

In the early 1960s, the Gros Michel was declared commercially extinct. The OG banana was no more.

Did the agriculture industry learn from its monoculture mistake?

Let's take a look at modern bananas to find out.

Today, the Cavendish banana is in the same position as Big Mike. Nearly 100% of the bananas purchased at every grocery store worldwide are cloned from a single Cavendish.

While the Cavendish might not taste as good as the Gros Michel, its genetics aren't decidedly different.

History repeats itself, and the Cavendish will soon be on its way out in the same fashion as the Gros Michel.

Panama Disease Race4, aka fusarium wilt, is decimating banana plantations. Many estimates suggest the banana we know today, the predictable yellow vehicle for peanut butter, will be gone in a decade or less.

What's to come?

There are hundreds of varieties of bananas, so you won't go without the fruit for the rest of your life.

Most varieties aren't grown commercially because they don't travel well. If a fruit can't survive the thousand-mile journey from Latin America to New York, it's not worth the grocer's money.

If you're lucky enough to live in a suitable climate for banana palms, you'll be able to grow whichever variety you'd like. Any variety can survive the distance from the backyard to the kitchen table.

My remaining questions are 1) will the industry learn from its second mistake? and 2) what will the next bananas look like?

Maybe we'll be lucky enough to have a diverse selection that includes the red guineo morado banana — a red peeled variety that supposedly has a taste between a banana and a raspberry.

🌎 Natural wonders for your eyeballs (10/10 guarantee):

• 😍 A snowy Serbian sunny scene

• 🕊 A strange courtship dance 

• 🦚 A closeup of a golden hummingbird

That's it for this week's newsletter.

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