Health/ Disease Blog Entry Two
By: Azrealle McClain
Sociology 202
09/09/09
4:00pm
Summary:
One of the largest staples in central Africa is the banana. However eating one could make you along with 30 million other people at risk. The banana bunchy top virus (which is spread by aphids and stunts & kills plants) and bacterial wilt (which causes fruit to ripen prematurely) have plagued the staple and cause many problems for its farmer. The simple solution would to be either up-root all the infected plants and only produce clean varieties of bananas or spray the plants with pesticide. Unfortunately the farmers don’t see these options as plausible. This means a loss of profit for the burned goods or buying costly pesticides for hundreds of plants. Although this problem has been found in eastern Congo, Ethiopia, western Kenya, Rwanda, northern Tanzania and Uganda; most farmers are unwilling to take protective measures to protect the public. The only real effort was made Uganda where they stopped growing banana’s all together and switched to corn.
Reactions:
I can’t help but side with the consumer. I think it is our right to be served clean and virus free food for consumption. This is especially true if the food item in question is the staple in that country. That would mean that millions of people would be infected and carry the disease. If I were a farmer I couldn't’t have that on my conscious. I believe that the people of Uganda took the morally correct decision by stopping the sale of infected bananas. By switching to corn, they are showing the consumer that they care about them and people are likely to positively respond. I can only hope that the other African countries will follow in the same footsteps.
Web Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/01/health/01glob.html?scp=1&sq=disease&st=cse
1 comment:
What I fidn really interesting about this article was how it was mentioned that it would not be cost effective for farmer to .... I think that if farmers were getting paid what they were worth than they would be able to afford the precautions they need to grow delicious and healthy produce. I have seen a documentary on the work environments of banana growers and harvesters. I am amazed we are not getting sick from the blood and misery that goes into growing bananas and getting them nice and ripe at my local grocery store.
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