Red to Green Food Sustainability ๐ฅฉ๐ฌโป๏ธ
Business:Entrepreneurship
Before 1960, the main export banana was called the Gros Michel. Why canโt we eat the Gros Michel anymore today? Because it has become virtually extinct due to Panama disease affecting it over many decades, driving it to its eventual near-extinction. The fungi infection ravaged banana plants across the globe, from Asia to Africa, exterminating plant after plant. The fact that the fungi spread worldwide at a relatively rapid pace highlights a severe problem with our current agricultural practices.
If a pest or disease figures out how to infect one of the banana plants, it has all the information it needs to infest all of them, as the same genetic material means the other plants have no defense left to fight against the disease.
A solution needed to be found, and it presented itself in The Cavendish, a variety that was discovered to be almost entirely resistant to Panama disease. It quickly replaced the Gros Michel on plantations as the export banana and has become the banana we know and eat regularly today. Today, 99% of exported bananas and 47% of global banana production is the Cavendish variety.
But now, our current flaky banana is threatened - as history repeats itself. The Panama disease is back, and it's upgraded. The new strain is called Tropical Race 4 and is found on Cavendish plantations across Asia, Australia, the Middle East, and Africa.
Daniel Bebber, leading researcher of the BananEx research group at the University of Exeter, researches solutions for the spread of the Panama disease and puts it like this:
"The story of the banana is really the story of modern agriculture exemplified in a single fruit. It has all the ingredients of equitability and sustainability issues, disease pressure, and climate change impact all in one. It's a very good lesson for us."
These are great examples of the importance of understanding coupled human-environment systems. That's an environmental science concept that, in essence, says that humans impact the environment, and the climate impacts humans. It's essential to understand them both as systems, including many complex, interacting parts that form a whole working system.
Red to Green is a podcast focused on the future of food and food sustainability. We cover topics like cellular agriculture, cultured meat, food waste, food packaging, and more.
More info and links to resources on https://redtogreen.solutions/
For sponsorships, collaborations, volunteering, or feedback write Marina at change@redtogreen.solutions
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Connect with Marina Schmidt https://www.linkedin.com/in/schmidt-marina/
7.8. The Woman Behind Environmentalism ๐ Understanding the GMO debate - Seeds of Science Part II
7. SEASON FINAL - BOOK TALKS - What Food Futurist are you? ๐ฎ Part II of Meals to Come
7.10. Three Archetypes of the Future of Food - The History of the Future of Food
7.9. When a Scientist Whistleblows Pesticides - The Monsanto Papers
7.7. GMO-Activists โ The Biggest Marketing Mistake - Seeds of Science
7.6. Understanding the most used Pesticide - More than Glyphosate ๐ฟ
7.5. Lobbying Strategies in US vs. Europe - Food Politics part II
7.4. Food Politics - How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health
7.3. Understanding Carbon Emissions of Food - The Carbon Footprint of Everything
7.2. Blind Spots of Food Tech ๐ Distribution and Responsibility - Part II of Stuffed and Starved
7.1. Stuffed and Starved ๐ Understanding Inequality in our Food System
7. SEASON TRAILER - Books on the future of food ๐ Reviewing and discussing
6. SEASON FINAL - Summary & Quiz on Biotech in Food - Precision Fermentation, Biomass Fermentation, Molecular Farming and More
6.12. Regulatory approval in Europe vs. the US and Singapore with Seth Roberts, The Good Food Institute Europe
6.11. The investor's perspective on biotech ๐ข in food with Foodlabs Principal Christian Guba
6.10. Scaling food biotechnology ๐ bioreactors, inputs and brains with GFI Lead Scientist Elliot Swartz
6.9. Mimiking Honey and Monoculture Honey Productions ๐ Melibio CEO Darko Mandich
6.8. Cacao-free chocolate ๐ซ and cacao's issues with WNWN Co-Founder Ahrum Pak
6.7. A Critical View on Biotech ๐ Is This Healthy? Is This Safe? ๐ค With Larissa Zimberoff
6.6. Molecular Farming - Growing Whey ๐ฎ in Plants ๐ฑ with Miruku CEO Amos Palfreyman
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