Name: Why The World’s Most Popular Banana May Go Extinct | Big Business
Uploaded: 2021-06-30T13:29:25.000Z
Duration: 13 min 39 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Narrator: The world's most popular banana

Modal verbs - B1

Narrator: Ninety-nine percent of bananas exported to developed countries

And the Cavendish is vulnerable to Tropical Race 4,

a fungus that's now ravaging banana farms across the globe.

this is Tropical Race 4 in a Cavendish banana.

Narrator: One scientist recently developed a line

Fernando: In Europe, the GMs are under regulation,

had to start from scratch to find a solution.

Narrator: Globally, we're facing the collapse

most consumed fruits before it's too late?

Narrator: They're so popular because they're yummy,

they look nice, and they ripen as they transport.

James: It's high-yielding, so it's got quite a thick skin,

and so it travels well and tastes pretty good.

Fernando: They are sterile. They don't have seeds.

Narrator: No seeds means Cavendish bananas

called suckers, from the base of an older plant.

Cavendish are really vulnerable to disease.

If you have everything wrong with just one clone,

one disease can kill everything, plant by plant.

Narrator: That's exactly what's happening with TR4,

one of the deadliest plant diseases out there.

but it does eventually kill the banana plant

Scientists guess the fungus probably started

that area grows 75% of the world's bananas.

Narrator: To make sure the fungus doesn't spread,

farms across Colombia have implemented biosecurity measures.

Workers wash down and disinfect the underside

just in case there's infected soil hiding in the treads.

Narrator: Antonio's team built cement paths

ready to be harvested, workers walk through

They're usually ready about 12 to 13 weeks

while the other catches it and carries it to the cableway.

That cableway system brings all those banana bunches

First, workers sanitize the bunches with chlorine.

Narrator: Then they check the bananas for quality

They cut off and throw bushels into a huge tank.

That bath not only preserves the bananas,

The bananas get cut into smaller bunches of five to seven.

Narrator: Next come those famous stickers.

Narrator: Workers wrap the banana carefully

so they don't bruise. That wrapping has holes in it

No more than four hours after the bananas are harvested,

those boxes end up on pallets loaded onto trucks.

Narrator: The bananas are trucked to the nearby port,

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Why The World’s Most Popular Banana May Go Extinct | Big Business

vulnerable

entire

develop

strain