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CNN.com talks about the Ugandan banana blight. The banana is crucial to the diet of the Ugandan people, they eat it bananas for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. More than 10 million bananas are grown each year in Uganda, the second largest producer. Recently banana xanthomonas wilt disease has caused the production of bananas to deplete greatly. This year’s banana production has been decreased by about 30 percent due the banana xanthomonas wilt (BXW).
The
National Banana Research Program, has been conducting experiments to grow BXW resistant bananas. They have a special license that allows them to produce genetically modified bananas. Though the genetically modified bananas aren’t available to the general public, many Ugandans are skeptical about the whole idea.
I like bananas. So do Ugandans. So, though they may be skeptical, I bet they wouldn't give the worries of genetically modified food another thought if BXW destroyed 100% instead of 30% of bananas. Whenever I hear people complain about gentically modified food, I just look at them, and think about all the food they have already eaten that was probably gentically grown. Skepticism won't help anything. Bananas will!
ReplyDeleteI see no reason to become skeptical about gentically modified bananas. A lot of our fruits and vegetables are already modified, might as well had one more to the list. Seeing a decline in bananas would make me go bananas. I am sure the BXW resistant bananas would not harm human in any way and thinking they would, even morally, is not necessary.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting topic and I like bananas because I listened once in a tv show that we should eat atleast one banana every day especially children, it helps to increase our height. I don't think that artificial banana will provide same nutrient as we can get from natural bananas. I do not understand one thing that is there shortage of banans in this earth that scientist need to make artificial or genetically modified bananas. Anyway the article is so interesting.
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