North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Mike Levine" <mlevine@umich.edu>]

This just in from the OCA (Organic Consumer's Association)
I know it's not about bananas, but it seems to fit where this thread is
heading.  I think there is hope.

MONSANTO STUMBLING
Monsanto, the creator of PCBs and Agent Orange and the world's largest
purveyor of genetically engineered seeds, has temporarily bowed out of
the biopharm industry (genetically engineering plants to grow
pharmaceutical drugs). The company says it wants to continue its focus
on what it claims to be a profitable venture: genetically engineered
foods. Contrasting its PR profit claims, the company recently closed its
4th quarter with a $188 million loss. Last year Monsanto lost almost two
billion dollars on total sales of $4.5 billion. Monsanto is currently
laying off nearly 10% of its employees worldwide. US farmers growing
Monsanto and other gene giant's "profitable" frankencrops lost so much
money last year, taxpayers had to shell out $12 billion  in subsidies
for corn, soybeans, and cotton.

If folks are interested in info about this kind of stuff I highly recommend
their newsletter at this link

http://www.organicconsumers.org/corp/monsanto_biopharm.cfm

However, getting back to bananas I am interested in hearing more about
varieties that can be used as potted plants.  Thanks everyone for the
suggestions and advice.  I think I'll be ordering a Raji Puri for next
season.  I gave a banana to a friend with a greenhouse 2 years ago (variety
unknown, but maybe some sort of Jamaican red type) and it still hasn't
flowered.  I don't think he has fertilized it much, but it seems healthy and
has a bunch of little sports at the base.  What can I tell him to do to
induce it to flower?  Also, when is the best time to divide them?

Mike Levine
Ann Arbor, MI
Zone 5b






----- Original Message ----- 
From: "tanis cuff" <tanistanis@hotmail.com>
To: <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Wednesday, October 29, 2003 4:41 PM
Subject: RE: [NAFEX] Bananas


> But don't all the horrors listed in this posting happen in this country
too
> ?   Thanks for the reminder, but if people refuse to see what's happening
in
> their/our own backyard, the "third world" is certainly not going to hold
our
> attention.   NAFEX & organizations like it can try to demonstrate that
there
> IS a different way of doing things, and of wondering why things are
usually
> done only one way (ie, whether that is right.)   Test-tube orchards/
> genebanks trouble me too, because usually the totality of the knowledge
need
> to make the most of these selections is lost.
>
> tc
>
>
> ----Original Message Follows----
> From: breen@fedcoseeds.com
> Reply-To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
> To: "North American Fruit Explorers" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
> Subject: RE: [NAFEX] Bananas
> Date: Wed, 29 Oct 2003 13:11:58 -0600
>
> i am saddened by the lack of concern it seems that is being expressed
about
> the underlying issues with these diseases. over the last hundred years,
> repressive political climates, slave labor, assinations of socialists
> leaders, and ignorance have been and are the tools with which banana
cartels
> control their third world growing regions while shipping to us in the
first
> world the fruits of worse than sweat shop conditions. no one commented at
> all on the issue of pesticide and fungicide exposure to workers in....
>
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