# Percentage of World Food Crop Species That Originated in the Americas? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 12, 2003, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/percentage-of-world-food-crop-species-that-originated-in-the-americas/207011 "2003-10-12T17:31:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2003, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/percentage-of-world-food-crop-species-that-originated-in-the-americas/207011/1 "2003-10-12T17:31:24Z")
I know that a lot of the food the world eats are from plants which were originally only found in the Americas, but what’s the percentage? ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2003, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/percentage-of-world-food-crop-species-that-originated-in-the-americas/207011/2 "2003-10-12T18:00:54Z")
According to [Prof. Jack Weatherford](http://www.macalester.edu/anthropology/weatherford.htm) in his book [Indian Givers: How the Indians of the Americas Transformed the World](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0449904962/104-4384366-9400733?v=glance), some 60 percent of all foods eaten in the world today were first harvested by the Indians of the Americas. ---
**Author:** ![rjk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ed655f/32.png) [@rjk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjk)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2003, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/percentage-of-world-food-crop-species-that-originated-in-the-americas/207011/3 "2003-10-12T18:05:26Z")
I suppose it depends whether you count calories, species, or acres. I’m not going to look things up, but corn (maize to Europeans), potatoes, and peppers spring to mind. Of course, a lot of that corn is used for animal feed and alcohol production, so you’d have to allow for that. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2003, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/percentage-of-world-food-crop-species-that-originated-in-the-americas/207011/4 "2003-10-12T18:23:35Z")
IIRC the book [“Guns, Germs and Steel”](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0393317552/103-5711607-7347847?v=glance) discusses this in some detail. ---
**Author:** ![MaryEFoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@MaryEFoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaryEFoo)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2003, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/percentage-of-world-food-crop-species-that-originated-in-the-americas/207011/5 "2003-10-12T19:03:28Z")
Most beans also, and tomatoes. Some or all squashes. Chocolate. Turkeys. Avocados, Guinea pigs, pinon nuts. And corn, potatoes, and peppers as per **RJK**. This doesn’t cover it all, either. Quinine bark, tobacco, possibly syphilis, and more. ---
**Author:** ![Asteroide](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@Asteroide](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asteroide)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2003, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/percentage-of-world-food-crop-species-that-originated-in-the-americas/207011/6 "2003-10-12T23:08:31Z")
Are you sure about pinon nuts ? I believe they come from pine trees and have been used in middle eastern cooking since the dawn of time or somesuch… ---
**Author:** ![Rashak\_Mani](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ea666f/32.png) [@Rashak\_Mani](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rashak_Mani)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2003, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/percentage-of-world-food-crop-species-that-originated-in-the-americas/207011/7 "2003-10-13T01:49:55Z")
TOMATOS ! or tomatoes… How could you guys forget… Potatoes and Corn are the most important thou. Many sorts of fruits too. ---
**Author:** ![VernWinterbottom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/c67d28/32.png) [@VernWinterbottom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VernWinterbottom)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2003, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/percentage-of-world-food-crop-species-that-originated-in-the-americas/207011/8 "2003-10-13T01:51:40Z")
Mmmmm, Guinea Pig! ---
**Author:** ![MaryEFoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@MaryEFoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaryEFoo)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2003, 7:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/percentage-of-world-food-crop-species-that-originated-in-the-americas/207011/9 "2003-10-13T07:51:19Z")
Well, the big fat superior pinon nuts from the pinon pine trees in the American Southwest, anyway. Mmmm, pinon-fed Guinea Pig! ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2003, 9:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/percentage-of-world-food-crop-species-that-originated-in-the-americas/207011/10 "2003-10-13T09:33:05Z")
pecans and cranberries, too. ---
**Author:** ![refusal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ac91a4/32.png) [@refusal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/refusal)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2003, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/percentage-of-world-food-crop-species-that-originated-in-the-americas/207011/11 "2003-10-13T11:56:00Z")
Top 30 food crops by production in metric tons, which I extracted from the \FAO\ database for 2002 (so if there are inaccuracies, it’s my fault). This excludes crops specified as for fodder, forage and silage and for fabric/ropes, but includes crops grown for vegetable oils. Sorry I can’t format this better. I researched origins from a number of websites. Crops from the Americas constitute 7 of 30 crops, or 26% of production. Rank Crop Production (Metric tons) Origin (approximate) 1 Sugar Cane “1,288,403,240” East asia 2 Maize “602,589,189” Americas 3 Rice, Paddy" “576,280,153” East asia 4 Wheat “572,878,902” Middle east 5 Potatoes “307,440,446” Americas 6 Sugar Beets “246,475,609” Middle east 7 Cassava “184,852,540” Americas 8 Soybeans “179,917,302” East asia 9 Sweet Potatoes “136,130,396” Americas 10 Oil Palm Fruit “135,964,544” West Africa 11 Barley “132,215,617” Middle east 12 Tomatoes “108,499,056” Americas 13 Watermelons “81,839,727” Africa 14 Bananas “69,832,378” Asia 15 Oranges “64,128,523” East asia 16 Cabbages “62,473,972” Middle east 17 Grapes “61,018,250” Middle east 18 Apples “57,094,939” Asia 19 Sorghum “54,501,076” Asia 20 Onions, Dry" “51,914,247” Asia 21 Coconuts “49,634,254” East asia 22 Yams “39,643,170” West Africa 23 Cucumbers and Gherkins “36,397,195” Asia 24 Groundnuts in Shell “34,075,421” Americas 25 Rapeseed “33,170,413” Asia 26 Plantains “32,211,419” Asia 27 Eggplants “28,926,457” Asia 28 Mangoes “25,754,509” East asia 29 Oats “25,534,599” Middle east 30 Sunflower Seed “23,850,626” Americas ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2003, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/percentage-of-world-food-crop-species-that-originated-in-the-americas/207011/12 "2003-10-13T15:14:50Z")
OTOH, rice and wheat are definitely old world and they supply an awful lot of the calories world wide. Where do bananas come from? I once read somewhere that bananas (mainly plantain) are, after rice, the second largest source of calories in the world. ---
**Author:** ![MaryEFoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@MaryEFoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaryEFoo)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2003, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/percentage-of-world-food-crop-species-that-originated-in-the-americas/207011/13 "2003-10-14T02:28:16Z")
**Refusal** ’s sources differentiate bananas and plantain for some reason. They are both from Asia. Wow, nothing from Europe. What did those neolithics eat, anyway? Turnips and mastodon bones? ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2003, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/percentage-of-world-food-crop-species-that-originated-in-the-americas/207011/14 "2003-10-14T02:44:40Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by MaryEFoo \* > \*\ ***Refusal** ’s sources differentiate bananas and plantain for some reason. They are both from Asia. > > Wow, nothing from Europe. What did those neolithics eat, anyway? Turnips and mastodon bones? \*\* Lentils. ---
**Author:** ![Doobieous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/da6949/32.png) [@Doobieous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doobieous)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2003, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/percentage-of-world-food-crop-species-that-originated-in-the-americas/207011/15 "2003-10-20T00:43:57Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Asteroide \* > \*\*Are you sure about pinon nuts ? > > I believe they come from pine trees and have been used in middle eastern cooking since the dawn of time or somesuch… \*\* They come from any pines with seeds large enough to bother. Many pines have small seeds that aren’t worth it, but all can be eaten. In Europe pine nuts typically come from Pinus pinea, the Italian stone pine. They can also come from P. cembra swiss stone pine, but it has small seeds. In the Americas, you have a wider choice: P. torreyana (torrey Pine) from So. Cal P. coulteri (coulter pine) P. lambertiana (Sugar Pine) P. albicaulis (WHitebark pine) P. edulis (Rocky mountain pinyon pine) P. monophylla (Single Leaf Pinyon) P. quadrifolia (Parry Pinyon) P. remota (paper shell pinyon) P. cembroides (Mexican Pinyon) P. nelsonii (Nelson’s Pinyon) P. maximartineii (Big Cone Pinyon) Of the American Species, P. maximartinezii has the largest seeds (1 inch long), but comes from a small area of Zacatecas in Mexico. The (Western) Sugar Pine has useable seeds, but they’re often very high and hard to get to.