Something I wonder about
Due to some circumstance (wishes from a Genie, deal with the devil- ? don’t fight the hypothetical) you have to select the only three staples for a new earth. Which three do you choose, and why? Do you create a world where there are no animal-based staples?
This was inspired by a conversation about potatoes and how calorie-dense they are, and they seem to grow anywhere.
I’m not sure there are any three crops you could pick and still have a complete nutritional meal. Some meat would probably be entirely necessary - not optional. And no matter what you pick, a lot of people would be, in effect, constantly sickly even if they were technically surviving, because humans don’t all have identical digestive systems. To make matters worse, you’re looking at some very restrictive food storage options.
Tribbles, Leola root, and popcorn.
Soy, broccoli and barley.
Beans beans beans
So, “staples” just means the foods eaten in bulk, not the only foods consumed.
I’m going to go with wheat, olives and … some sort of legume. Currently torn between chickpea and common bean, with the bean edging out the chickpea for breadth of varieties.
Wheat over other grains and potatoes for overall nutrition profile and for versatility of derived products.
Olives because olive oil.
[ol]
[li]Milk - which hopefully can be made into cheese, cream, butter, and other milk products, for variety[/li][li]Soy beans - likewise, hopefully they can be turned into miso, tofu, soy nuts, etc.[/li][li]Whatever** powerhouse fruit or vegetable** wins the nutrient contest: probably something like sweet potato leaves, but maybe sweet potatoes, strawberries, spinach, or carrots. You’re going to want good amounts of vitamins A and C, for sure.[/li][/ol]
Avocado seems to be the closest thing to a complete-food vegetable there is. So that.
And beans.
And rice.
I’m enjoying the replies.
I hadn’t considered milk. Animals are quite expensive to maintain, but milk is incredibly versatile and properly prepared can store quite well
To my mind, a good staple shouldn’t be too perishable, and should have high yields. So personally, I think things like strawberries and avocados might not be ideal.
And yes, staples means just that. The bulk, storable, high yield foods that can provide the base nutrition for a society. At least, that’s how I’d define a staple off the top of my head.
. . . and here I thought this was going to be a thread about office supply vendors. :smack:
Tripler
My choice: magenta toner, a working three-hole punch, and the comfy AssMaster 6000 chair.
Agreed.
For the record, I ummed and aahed over olive oil more than the other two. But ultimately it can be stored, it has a higher yield than rapeseed, peanut or sunflower, and from what I can gather, is way less environmentally destructive than the higher-yielding palm and coconut oils.
That and it’s a staple of many of my favourite cuisines.
Must admit, it’s probably soy I’d miss most. Maybe I should replace common bean with soy. Yeah, lets say my final 3 is:
Wheat, soy and olive.
I could probably live out my life on that if only there were tortillas. 
Maize (corn), beans, and squash. Reputedly the three together provide a complete nutrition profile. And grown together in the same field, (bean vines growing up the corn stalks) replenish the soil and do not require rotation.
Surprised how many are choosing at least 1 from the FDA list of top 8 major allergens:
Wheat
Soybeans
Milk
Eggs
Peanuts
Tree nuts (e.g., almonds, walnuts, pecans)
Fish (e.g., bass, flounder, cod)
Crustacean shellfish (e.g., crab, lobster, shrimp)
which account for 90% of reactions and any of which would shut out a huge percentage of eaters
Tato, corn, mutfruit.
Maize, rice and beans.
Potatoes, spinach, beans
Because I don’t care enough about allergy sufferers? And they don’t matter for the hypothetical, since it’s not “the only foods that will exist”
And ~1% (for coeliac) and 0.3% (for soy) is* in no way* “A huge percentage of eaters”. They’ll just have to make do with all the non-staple foods they can eat…just like IRL.
Rice and lentils (dal) are the staple foods of India, and eaten together provide a complete protein profile, and taste good together. Add a vegetable or two like spinach or broccoli and you could live very healthily only on that for a long time.