Curated playlist
Crops
- Bell pepperA green bell pepper is just a red one picked early. Red ones are allowed to ripen fully.
- MangoIn 1974, Filipino horticulturist Ramon Barba made mango trees flower on demand.
- WheatHighly domesticated wheat cannot survive in the wild. Its seeds no longer scatter, so it depends on people.
- LettuceLettuce was once a sacred plant carried in festivals of the Egyptian god Min. Egyptians first grew it for seed oil.
- CassavaCassava, a staple for over 800 million people, can kill if prepared badly. Raw roots contain toxic cyanide compounds.
- OnionThe onion has been grown for at least 7,000 years, yet no wild ancestor has ever been found.
- BeanFour or five raw red kidney beans can leave a person doubled over with stomachache, vomiting, and diarrhea.
- SugarcaneSugarcane was first grown mainly to feed pigs. Papuans and Austronesians in New Guinea did not prize it as a sweetener.
- Chili pepperBirds can eat the hottest chili peppers without distress. They lack the pain receptor that responds to capsaicin.
- HayHay baled before it fully dries can catch fire on its own. Bacterial heat is the cause.
- AlmondThe almond is not a nut, but a stone fruit related to the peach and the plum. The part we eat is its seed.
- CoconutEvery coconut on a remote Pacific island arrived because a person brought it. Ocean currents alone could not do it.
- CoffeePope Clement VIII declared coffee a Christian beverage in 1600, opening Europe to the drink.
- Nonfood cropWheat can become building insulation or a biodegradable plastic. Nonfood crops are grown for factories, not tables.
- FlaxFlax fibers spun and knotted about 30,000 years ago are the oldest known worked plant fiber.
- CropJust fifteen plant species fill 90 percent of the world's cropland. About 50,000 plants are edible for humans.
- Lime (fruit)Squeezing a lime on a sunny beach can burn your skin. Chemicals in lime peel react to ultraviolet light.
- TurnipAround 1700, "Turnip" Townshend used turnips to keep English livestock alive through winter.
- AsparagusAsparagus can make urine smell within 15 to 30 minutes of a meal. The cause is sulfur compounds from asparagusic acid.
- SoybeanThe soybean, known to botanists as Glycine max, is a legume native to East Asia, and in June 1973 the United States briefly refused to sell it abroad. Traders had misread the soybean futures market, which wrongly signaled a major shortage.…
- PeanutThe peanut, Arachis hypogaea, buries its own fruit, and its Latin species name means "under the earth." In 2023 the world produced 54 million tonnes of peanuts, with China supplying 36 percent of the total and India 19 percent. The plant…
- Natural rubberIn 1876, Henry Wickham smuggled 70,000 rubber tree seeds out of Brazil. Only 2,400 of them germinated at Kew Gardens.
- CerealCereal gets its name from Ceres, the Roman goddess of agriculture and grain.
- Yam (vegetable)Yam is the common name for certain plants in the genus Dioscorea, and among the Igbo people of south eastern Nigeria it comes with a rule. No one eats the newly harvested tuber until the community has marked the feast called Iri ji ọhụrụ.…