I read a while back that the apple originated in the mountains of Central Asia, which is where its wild ancestor grows. With the wide variety of European-grown apples today, and the mental image of medieval monks brewing cider, I would have guessed at a European origin, had I given it consideration. I was also surprised to read recently that the carrot, another vegetable I would have guessed a European origin for, originated in Persia.
I heard a fact on a game show the other day - something like that 75% of the vegetables grown in the world consisted of plants from just twelve species. Is this right? And, if so, what are the twelve? Also, what is the original geographic location of each of these plants, and the reason why each came to be so successful and important to human food production?
In addition, while there may not be a known factual answer to this, how many plant species in the world are there that could be domesticated to create major viable food sources? Are there other lesser-cultivated or regional vegetables grown around the world that could one day fill a worldwide staple food role, such as rice or the potato? Could we use modern science technology to help domesticate other wild plants for food production (since domestication changes the plant, including increasing the size of the edible part)?
Not a direct answer to your question about 12 species, but you might be interested in the Columbian Exchange, specifically the important crops from the New World which quickly established themselves as staples in the Old World: potatoes, corn/maize, tomatoes.
Tomatoes 177 Mil Tonnes
Onions 93
Cucumber/Gherkins 80
Cabbage/Brassicas 71
Eggplants 51
Carrot/Turnips 42
Chilli/Peppers 34
Lettuce/Chicory 26
Spinach 26
Garlic 26
Pumpkin/Squash 26
Cauliflower/Broccoli 25
Different source but for tubers not included in vegetable list above
Watermelons 117 Mil Tonnes
Bananas 113
Apples 89
Grapes 77
Oranges 73
Mangoes 46
Plantains 35
Tangerines 32
Pears 27
Pineapples 25
Peaches/Nectarines 24
Lemons/Limes 17
Which are dwarfed by the production of grains:
Your list splits several vegetables that are in fact the same species (cabbage, cauliflower, and broccoli are all Brassica oleracea), and lumps together others that are not (e.g., carrots are Daucus carota but turnips are Brassica rapa).
Well that is true enough but that is precisely how they laid out the results in the URL.
Probably bad form to deliberately misquote the cite, would’t you think?
There are thousands of species edible to humans, many of which are already domesticated to at least some degree, and any of which could presumably come to represent a greater proportion of the overall human diet. What sort of changes one might see in these species to make that happen is very difficult to say, given the wide variety of forms that some vegetable species take (the brassicas are the most famous, including kale, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, and others, but the squashes show similar variety, with almost all of the edible squashes, from pumpkin to zucchini and many others, being the same species).
As an aside, am I the only one surprised that the world grows twice as much corn as rice?
A lot of corn is grown for animal feed. The second largest producer is China, and a majority of their production is for livestock feed - mainly pork. A large chunk of the US crop is also used for ethanol production.
We are, to a large extent, a species of grass eaters. Barley, corn, millet, oats, rice, sorghum, sugarcane, and wheat are all part of the Poaceae family.
Yeah, I knew that corn was the primary animal feed in the US, but I would have thought that animal feed in Asia would be primarily rice-based, like human feed in Asia.
I’d guess that the prevalence of sweet potatoes over white potatoes is probably mostly due to Africa.
Hmmm - 2nd place through 5th. Turns out that China consumes a hell of a lot of sweet potatoes, 66% of global consumption:
I’m assuming that the figures given above for yams are for true yams, not sweet potato varieties which are sold as “yams” in the US, as we have discussed before. True yams are a staple crop in West Africa.
One thing I’ve read is that turnips are regarded as animal feed in Europe. (At least historically, that may not be the case nowadays.) When the British blockade of Germany in WWI began producing food shortages it was known as the Turnip Winter (Steckrübenwinter) because people were so hungry they were reduced to eating turnips. Apparently having to eat turnips was seen as the equivalent of having to eat tree bark or grass.
While not fruits or vegetables, two of my favorite examples of widespread adoption of plants early on are:
Rice. Started in China. Reached Greece in the days of Alexander (at least). Even the name may have spread from S. India.
Coriander. Originated in SW Asia. The word appears in Mycenaean Greek. A wide belt of ancient people grew and traded in it.
So a useful plant spreading throughout Eurasia-N. Africa by the first century is not surprising. What is surprising are the plants that could have spread more but didn’t. E.g., maize spread thru the Mississippi Valley, to SE & SW US and eventually to the NE US. But it never got to the Pacific NW despite being easily grown in the river valleys there. And there was a wide trading network which the grain and how to grow it could have traveled.
Corn is not corn on the cob. Corn is commercial sweetener, cattle feed, industrial starch. ethanol, and many other things. It can grow many places rice cannot (like dry interior plains).
Don’t leave out apricots and cherries from that list. All five sorts of produce are in the *Prunus *genus. (and don’t you mean plums instead of prune?)
All citrus is pretty much classified as one big genus (Citrus) with a whole lot of hybrids. So lemons, navel oranges, tangerines, persian limes, key limes, pomelos, citron, Buddha’s hand, kumquats, calamondins, finger limes, grapefruits, Meyer lemons, kaffir limes and sour oranges are all the same genus.
That said, it’s theorized that most of them, excepting the finger limes/Australian citrus, derive from a handful of core species- the citron, the mandarin orange, the pomelo and the kumquat and a sort of progenitor species- the papeda.
Hybridizing all these together produced all the citrus we have today.
Right, I know about all of the many products corn can be turned into (and you didn’t even mention oil). I was just assuming that, first, any grain could be used to make those things instead, and second, that the same factors that led to rice being favored over corn for direct human consumption in Asia would also lead to it being favored for transformative uses like animal feed, starch, ethanol, and so on.
Take a look at this paper. Specifically page 226
(Or page 6 of 15)
It presents the energy footprint of different crops. Rice has a rather high energy footprint. Combine that with water requirements and rice doesn’t look good for all the other applications.
Besides all crops rely on government subsidies and Japan does grow rice for animal feed.