Morning

Bananas have hit the psychologically significant dollar mark. This could spell the end of the Howard government.

Could it be that the long predicted banana shortage is beginning to bite? The other day I found an article about this in a New Scientist lying around the Ponds Lunchroom (which, incidentally, used to be called the Breakout Room, until someone delicately raised the worrying skin care connotations).

Apparently banana yields in many parts of the world have been diminishing for decades, and it could disappear entirely within 10 years. The problem is that the edible banana plant is sterile – it's been propagated from cuttings since prehistory. The genetic uniformity that's resulted from a lack of sexual reproduction makes it highly vulnerable to pests and diseases. Fungal diseases have destroyed plantations in poor countries in Africa and South America, and are only controlled in the developed world by massive fungicide spraying. One fungus, Panama disease, isn't controllable by spraying and is rapidly spreading. Researchers are frantically hand-pollinating commercial varieties with wild fertile inedible bananas, trying to create new disease resistant varieties. The only successful hybrid they’ve created to date has hit market resistance for tasting more like an apple than a banana.

So maybe the crisis in the banana market is causing prices to skyrocket. On the other hand, I guess they could just be out of season.

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Afternoon

"Holding Back the Years" - nylon string acoustic guitar, man in mid 30s with very neat beard.