This News is Ba-Na-Nas: Why the Fruit’s Future Is in Danger

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A seller arranges bananas at a wholesale fruit market

REUTERS/Mariana Bazo

Your cereal is about to get a little bit lonely. (Via The New Yorker)

Millions of consumers boost their breakfast with the presence of bananas. Rich in vitamins and minerals, the robust fruits sell for a minimal price, making them a hot commodity for farmers and consumers alike.

(See TIME’s health checkup: Who needs organic food?)

Thanks to some scientific adversity, the future of bananas is in limbo. The Jan. 10 issue of The New Yorker takes a trip inside the plight of the Cavendish variety — a blend that comprises nearly all banana exports across the world.

Despite its business dominance, the Cavendish plant wilts in the face of Tropical Race Four, a fungus that decimated the fruit’s populations in the Far East and Australia. The New Yorker report takes that present concern one step further. Scientists’ next worry revolves around whether the same disease will plague today’s primary supply in Latin America.

For more, head over to The New Yorker.

(See the top 10 food trends of 2010.)