Beans vs. Cereal Crops
Changing topics entirely, I've been wondering why cereal crops have had so much importance relative to legumes (particularly beans). The puzzle is this: beans are generally more nutritious than cereal grains, they are (I believe) hardier against adverse weather, they do not deplete nitrogen from the soil (in fact I believe many of them harbor nitrogen-fixing bacteria in their roots), and after they are harvested they can be dried and stored indefinitely. So why do cereal crops loom so much larger in the history of civilization?
A few theories:
1. My premises are wrong. In particular, maybe beans are not as tolerant of different climates as I am assuming.
2. I am simply mistaken about the relative importance of beans and cereal crops throughout history.
3. I am inappropriately focused on certain civilizations that favored cereal grains, while others (perhaps in North America?) were more reliant on beans.
4. Cereal crops are significantly cheaper than beans in some important respect (acreage, labor, storage costs), at least on a per-calorie basis.
5. Cereal crops have more uses than beans and, in particular, can be fermented into a cheap source of alcohol.
Anyway I've been thinking about this shit.
A few theories:
1. My premises are wrong. In particular, maybe beans are not as tolerant of different climates as I am assuming.
2. I am simply mistaken about the relative importance of beans and cereal crops throughout history.
3. I am inappropriately focused on certain civilizations that favored cereal grains, while others (perhaps in North America?) were more reliant on beans.
4. Cereal crops are significantly cheaper than beans in some important respect (acreage, labor, storage costs), at least on a per-calorie basis.
5. Cereal crops have more uses than beans and, in particular, can be fermented into a cheap source of alcohol.
Anyway I've been thinking about this shit.
posted by James | 1:49 PM
4 Comments:
Haven't you read Guns, Germs, and Beans?
I think cereals have a much higher caloric density per acre. My (likely uninformed) understanding was that until the proto-inca developed the potato, nothing else even came close to cereals in terms of caloric density per acre.
Further googling also indicates that early cereals such as Einkorn, had a much better nutrient profile than modem grains "comprising significant levels of protein, fat, phosphorus, potassium, beta-carotene and pyroxidine" So the relative advantage you are ascribing to beans may not have existed at some hypothetical early branch point where civilization went with cereals.
We didn't domesticate cereals, cereals domesticated us!
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