NEW DELHI, June 8: The origins of over two-thirds of the grains, legumes, fruits, vegetables, and other agricultural crops countries grow and consume can be traced to ancient breadbaskets in distant parts of the world, according to an exhaustive peer-reviewed report published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B. The study, covering 151 crops and 177 countries, marks the first time scientists have quantified the level of inter connectedness of national diets and agricultural economies in terms of non-native plants, providing a novel take on the global crop diaspora, and a deeper understanding of how globalization continues to affect what we eat. The findings also have important implications for efforts to make the global food supply more resilient to challenges such as climate change. “It’s fascinating to see the extent to which so many plants have become synonymous with traditional diets in countries many thousands of miles from where those plants first appeared,” said lead author Colin Khoury of the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) and United States Department of Agriculture. “If you’re eating tomatoes in Italy or chillies in Thailand, you’re consuming foods that originated far away, and that have reached those places relatively recently. “Now we know just how much national diets and agricultural systems everywhere depend on crops that originated in other parts of the world.” Each crop was traced back to the world’s 23 “primary regions of diversity”. These are geographic zones where a distinct range of edible plants were domesticated and developed by early farmers thousands of years ago, to become the food crops we know and love today. In recent centuries, migration, colonialism, and trade have resulted in many of these crops being produced and consumed far from their primary regions of diversity, a trend that continues today. The study found that all countries of the world now rely on “foreign” crops that originated in geographic regions well beyond their borders. It also revealed that the United States’ agricultural output and economy are significant beneficiaries of ancient farmers in East Asia, where soybean originated, and Central America and Mexico, where maize (corn) and other important staples were born. At the same time, the report shows that today places as far afield as Eastern Europe, Argentina, China, East and Southern Africa, India and Southeast Asia all benefit from the use of sunflower oil – an important source of calories and fat whose ancestral home is North America. Cambodia, Bangladesh, and Niger, meanwhile, are among the countries least dependent on foreign crops; even so, at least a fifth of their diets is composed of crops that originated in distant regions. Mexico is in the middle-ground due to the continued popularity in local diets of crops like maize and beans, two plants native to the region, alongside sugarcane (with origins in Southeast and South Asia) and wheat. Malawi, like most countries worldwide, depends on an array of crops from diverse regions. Its typical diet features crops from Central America and Mexico (including maize, cassava, and beans), South and Southeast Asia (sugarcane, rice, and bananas, and plantains), the South and East Mediterranean (wheat), tropical South America (cassava and groundnut), and Andean South America (potatoes and beans). (UNI)
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