- [[2022-02-28 Potatoes|Potatoes Newsletter]] * [[chestnut blight]] * [[Banana by Dan Koeppel]] _Blame_ was originally inspired by the book _Banana by Dan Keoppel_, which I think was recommended to me by a member of the Obsidian community as something I would probably be interested in. (I get a lot of recommendations of great books that way; if you come across a book you think I'd like, please do let me know.) Although I only got around to reading it recently, and am only about one chapter in, I'm already shook. _Banana_ is, as you might have guessed from the title, about bananas. Going in, I knew about the blight (fungal disease) that switched us over from "delicious sweet" bananas that allegedly tasted like banana-flavored Starburst, but I didn't know much about beyond that. It turns out that the blight is still a problem today, for the kind of banana we're eating now — the Cavendish. Although farmers and scientists thought that the new variant was immune to Panama disease, it is only immune to a particular *variant* of Panama disease. Modern bananas, like seedless varieties of oranges, require human intervention to breed. This makes them even more susceptible to blights than potatoes are. The new variant of Panama disease first started showing up in Malayasia; bananas are native to Southeast Asia, so it makes sense that diseases that can cause problems for them are more common in Southeast Asia. One of the advantages that invasive species have when they travel to an extremely different place than where they're native to is that the organisms native to their new home don't have defenses against them — and aren't prone to preying on them. Something similar happened with the American Chestnut blight in the early 1900s. That blight inspired my flash fiction story [Cat and Wolf](https://newsletter.eleanorkonik.com/cat-and-wolf/) %% ( [[2021-07-21 Cat and Wolf]] ) %%, but it was essentially the opposite phenomenon: the imported trees weren't as susceptible to the _Cryphonectria parasitica_ fungus, because they had been exposed to it already and built up an immunity. In the case of the American chestnut, the blight was brought to its native range and acted as an invasive species. In the case of the banana, the invasive (but vulnerable) banana had no defenses against the native fungus. Historically, banana stands are pretty isolated and the fungus wasn't able to spread much. Now, with our global supply chains and farmers who move from plantation to plantation with contaminated boots, the fungus spreads easily. It hasn't made it to the Western hemisphere yet, but experts think it's only a matter of time. We might lose the Cavendish banana the same way we lost the Gros Michel variety... and the American chestnut. As I mentioned in the Afterword for [Cat and Wolf](https://newsletter.eleanorkonik.com/cat-and-wolf/) %% ( [[2021-07-21 Cat and Wolf]] ) %%, the American chestnut blight devastated the Appalachian region of the Americas. The loss of the banana probably would not devastate the world's economy — but there are many countries and regions whose economies are extremely dependent on the banana. It's the world's largest fruit crop, and the bestselling fruit in America (even though apples actually grow here, and are sturdier!). If the banana gets wiped out by a fungal blight, it _will_ have devastating consequences for the economy in many tropical countries, and disrupt the dietary habits of a great many people — including me. My family eats 4-6 bananas a day alone. After the last two years of the pandemic, most of us are attuned to the idea that people raising the alarm about the possibility of an devastating epidemic (ebola, SARS, swine flu) weren't just being alarmist. History is full of devastating epidemics, like the Black Death. Epidemics have been a problem for urban civilizations since the dawn of urban civilizations; entire articles have been written about ancient [epidemics in the cradle of civilization](https://sciencenordic.com/denmark-epidemic-history/epidemics-in-the-cradle-of-civilization/1758958). I don't want to dwell on epidemics now, but I _do_ want to point out that blights have been a problem for many cultures and civilizations throughout history. The ancient [Israelites and Mesopotamians both had rituals for how to handle a fungal infestations](https://newsletter.eleanorkonik.com/fungus/) %% ( [[2021-06-21 Fungus]] ) %%, although the most well-known blight was the Irish famine. Potatoes are great [crops for justice, empire, & tax resistance](https://newsletter.eleanorkonik.com/potatoes/) %% ( [[2022-02-28 Potatoes]] ) %% — the latter is no doubt why Jaskin's wife grows them. According to Alice Roberts in _Tamed_ (which I reviewed [back in August](https://newsletter.eleanorkonik.com/book-review-tamed/) %% ( [[Review of Tamed by Alice Roberts]] ) %%), the ability for plants like potatoes and bananas to clone themselves functions as a backup method of dealing with environmental challenges. The domestication process short-circuits some of the natural backups found in nature; less diversity makes it easier for humans to mass produce food, but it also makes for more fragile systems. One of the reasons I wrote _Blame_ (and the other stories about the rorgoten fungus) was because I want to raise awareness about the dangers of blights. It's not that I think they've fallen out of our cultural awareness — [blights show up in video games like Path of Exile](https://pathofexile.fandom.com/wiki/Sister_Cassia) as a mechanic, and most of us have heard about the Irish potato famine — but Americans knew about the bubonic plague before the COVID-19 epidemic hit. Knowing about something is different from the understand you get from _living_ through it. I don't want to live through a devastating blight, but neither Paertan nor Old Man Jaskin have a choice.