#sidebar yes the old world is most of the population and most of the landmass and most of the domesticated animals

[anonymusbosch]

@tropylium and @everything-narrative -

Yeah, I didn't include or mention every plant native to the Americas or every plant endemic to Afroeurasia (it's a long list). Obviously wheat isn't the only thing that doesn't originate in America! I was making an off-the-cuff gesture at a couple things at once - the incredible impact on global cuisine made by thousands of years of crop domestication by indigenous Americans; the undercultivation and underappreciation of various native plants (some of which are analogs of Old World plants!); a wave of, like, personal gratitude or connection I was feeling in the moment towards people from millenia ago; and my own personal taste in food.

And of course I'm glad not to have to choose! Of course.

But since we're here, and since I was thinking through a lot of this anyway, and since you've given me several examples of exactly what I was vaguely pointing to I'll get more specific.

A couple major themes: For several of these crops/plants, the Americas either have their own species which just aren't as commercially cultivated, their own species which aren't domesticated, or a wealth of species which serve similar culinary functions.

Carrots - Nope, not a loss, North America has wild edible carrots! A different species from European wild carrots, but still edible.

Celery - Yeah, as far as I'm aware, the Americas don't have a version of celery. And I never cook with celery and would happily go without it.

Cucumber and eggplant - Yeah, I'd be a little sad.

Spinach - Many American analogues. There are many related edible greens which behave similarly, like goosefoots/chenopodium.

Apples, oranges, lemons, bananas, peaches, pomegranate, dates, almonds - Alas, farewell, off they go.

(We do have native plums and cherries which are tasty, and we do have undomesticated almonds and crabapples.)

Hazelnuts and walnuts we have! Again, the dominant varieties cultivated are colonial but the hazelnuts and walnuts native to the Americas are just as edible!

Garlic - I specifically mentioned wild onions (as a gloss for the allium genus) because chives and ramps and dozens of other plants in the genus are native to the Americas and fill a similar niche.

Mustard, black pepper, turmeric, basil, thyme - oh well.

Parsley, rosemary - The leaves of various related species function very similarly.

Coffee, tea - tragic, but since there's yerba mate for caffeine, I'd survive

Grapes- there are native grapes! Including the species that became the Concord grape. Many of those species weren't domesticated, true, but they are present.

Barley - see, saying "no beer" is funny, because beer can also be made with corn! And it was, by native Americans. Barley beer is just one type of beer (wheat and oat and rice beers also exist). But also, I would take pulque or colonche over grain beer any day lol

(fundentally I just have more of an appreciation for gin and mezcal than some other options out there)

Yep, all the brassica oleracea varieties would be a loss and I would mourn it. (this was in the tags of the original post lol)

Rice, yes, sad. I specifically mention *wild* rice because I grew up with it and I adore it and it does grow here (though it's not as neutral-tasting as Oryza rices and I don't think it's as culinarily flexible, it's tasty of its own accord and beautiful also)

Peas - false? There's one species of pea that has been heavily cultivated and has become the most common culinarily, but there are dozens of species of peas and vetches, including 54 in the Americas!

Soy - yeah, a tragedy. Still, there are other legumes

Stone fruits and garlic - mentioned above, the Americas have some stone fruits and several alliums.

Mint - There are mints native to the Americas! I've eaten them.

Domesticated animals - Partially true - cows and pigs aren't native to the Americas and some of the other animals on the list occur here but were not domesticated. There are domesticated ducks and turkeys, though, and there are (undomesticated) native rabbits, geese, and sheep/goats. Which is part of what I was thinking about when I made this post - I don't personally consume many animal products, and neither did e.g. the Aztecs, for whom meat was a relatively small portion of their diet and cheese was absent. But when I did, bison meat and cheese is wayyyyy tastier than that of domestic cattle... And for textiles, wool is fantastic and you can get it from llamas and alpacas!

Bees - Yes, the domestic honey bee is not from the Americas, but there are cultured honey-producing bees here! Mayan stingless bees were and still are cultivated for their honey. And there are honey wasps as well!

Part of what I was thinking about is just how much of so many modern cuisines (Italian, Himalayan, South Indian, Mexican, Thai, and Korean were some examples floating around my mind) draws on foods originally from both hemispheres. Part of what I was thinking about was how much modern American food and the crops we grow are heavily shaped by which foods were domesticated first in the other hemisphere and what was most valued colonially - just how many foods I personally have never even heard of that were once (or presently!) important to millions of people's everyday lives.

and partially I was thinking -

sweet potato! cashews! chia! guava! papaya! avocado! pecans! mexican oregano! allspice! pineapple! nopales! sunflower seeds! peanuts! passionfruit! amaranth! chestnuts! quinoa! blackberries raspberries salmonberries mulberries cranberries chokecherries strawberries gooseberries huckleberries beautyberries elderberries juneberries hell yes.

the Americas really popped off with potatoes, peppers, tomatoes, maize, and winter squashes, and most beans, and cocoa. if I had to choose only crops native to the old world vs crops native to the new world I would pick new world in a heartbeat. there are native onions and grains and rices that are not endemic. the loss of wheat would be a tragedy but the world without tomatoes would be so so so dark