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Bananas, as we know them, are doomed
Because all the bananas we eat are clones of each other, they are susceptible to being wiped out by a single disease - putting crops and jobs at risk, explain ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and JOEL HELLEWELL
Bananas are propagated by making clones with close to zero genetic diversity. This makes every banana plantation highly susceptible to the same fungal and viral diseases.

EVERY year we in Britain are eating more bananas, and paying less for them. Despite the huge distance and technical expertise required to bring bananas halfway across the globe from plantation to palate in perfect freshness, they are cheaper than apples.

And yet, their cultivation and distribution has always been threatened by a fear of mass failure.

Although hundreds of varieties of bananas and plantains exist across the world, exported bananas are dominated by just one cultivar: the Cavendish.

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