Bananageddon brings the Cavendish crisis home

Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico in September 2017. It was the worst natural disaster to hit the island in recorded history, killing nearly 3,000 people and causing more than $90 billion in damage.

It was all over the news. Like many people, I felt badly about it and wondered about the response of our federal government.

Two months later, my insulin pump broke. I called the manufacturing company and asked how long it would be until I could get a replacement. I expected them to say a day or two.

"I don't know," the operator said. "Our pumps are manufactured in Puerto Rico, so they're all off-line."

What?

Suddenly, I cared deeply about Puerto Rico. We must save Puerto Rico! We must put as many boots on the ground to restore Puerto Rico! Puerto Rico's economy – especially the insulin-pump-manufacturing sector – must be allowed to recover! This is taking way too long!

I'm not proud of myself. It was selfish: When there was a disaster in Puerto Rico, it was sad. When it affected me, it became a crisis.

The same is true of  the strain of fungus called Tropical Race Four.

Oh, Tropical Race Four is a blight and it could affect crops in other parts of the world. That's terrible. I  hope they find a way to control it, like they always do. I hope nothing bad really happens.

It's bad news, but it's contained. It's Tropical Race Four (which I initially presumed was the fourth running of some marathon through the rain forest) and it's bad.

But then . . . Tropical Race Four has spread to China, the Philippines, Indonesia, Australia, Jordan, Mozambique, India and more. No big deal unless you like bananas.

Bananas?

Yes. Bananas.

This is a catastrophe! We must save the banana!

Tropical Race Four is causing a zombie apocalypse for Cavendish bananas –  the type of bananas that most of us have eaten all of our lives. When you read the word "banana," you picture a Cavendish, because that's all we've known.

Now it faces extinction.

Tropical Race Four was a distant agricultural problem for decades. Americans get 90 percent of our bananas from Latin America, which was free of Tropic Race Four, so it was sad but it affected other people.

Last summer, the fungus arrived in Columbia. It spreads fast and the results will be catastrophic. Bananas are crucial to the economy of Central America, but to most Americans, the bigger disaster will be an increase in price for bananas and the ultimate disappearance of "normal" bananas from our supermarkets.

We probably should have reacted sooner. When Big Banana (the banana industry) began to exclusively produce Cavendish bananas in the 1950s, we should have insisted on diversity. When Tropical Race Four hit China and the Philippines, we should have attacked it.

Instead, we waited. Like my insulin pump, we didn't react to the disaster until it directly affected us.

I didn't get a new insulin pump for a full month and I was aware of Puerto Rico's problems every day during that period. Two years have passed, the island is again struggling and my reaction is similar to what it was before my pump broke. It's sad. But it's not my focus. My pump works.

I recognize that it's selfish. But what am I supposed to do?

I'm using up my energy worrying about the Cavendish banana crisis!

Reach Brad Stanhope at bradstanhope@hotmail.com.