There were some stories about bananas being threatened by a fungus awhile back: that there was a danger that all bananas would die out in the near future from an infection.
Not a big thing in the US but a big problem in countries where people eat various types of bananas for food. (In Uganda, about 20% of calories come from this lowly fruit).
Now, there are reports about Ugandan scientist growing GM bananas that are resistant to the scourge that won't respond to the usual chemicals:
Not important you say? No, unless you get half your calories from that lowly fruit.But local scientists have not. On a sprawling campus outside Kampala, Wilberforce Tushemereirwe and his colleagues at the National Banana Research Programme have been on a quest to defeat the disease by building a better banana. This has involved adding to the fruit a sweet pepper gene that has already improved disease resistance in several vegetables.
but they needed special "permission" because GM food is banned there...blame the rich white churches and NGO's...like the Catholic ones who turned away US rice for one of our disasters, because it "might" contain GM rice.
I have some reservations about GM food, but the extreme hype against it seems to be based on superstition rather than science, and is loudest among those who never went hungry:
A study by Enoch Kikulwe, assistant professor of international food economics at the University of Göttingen, Germany, revealed more opposition to GM crops among the elite than those in poorer villages. Most studies show that better education led to more acceptance of GM foods, he said.But for Kamenya the farmer, – who falls into the elite category – the anti-GM stance was hypocritical. "Most of the people against this have choices," he said, a pot of matooke steaming nearby. "Somebody who is hungry does not have a choice. GM, organic or whatever – you have to feed the people."
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