Just four crops - wheat, maize, rice and soy beans - provide two-thirds of the world's food supply.
But now scientists in Malaysia are trying to change that by bringing back crops that have always been on the sidelines.
There are potentially as many as 7,000 different not very well-known crops like kedondong (little crunchy, tart berries that grow on trees) that could be grown as major crops.
At the headquarters of "Crops for the Future" this particular fruit has been turned into sugar-free juices thst are high in Vitamin C.
Others crops are being grown throughout the CFF under 3 large silver domes including moringa trees and bambara groundnuts, Crops that have been grown in Malaysia for centuries but little known in the rest of the world.
Because our projected world population by 2050 is as high as 10 billion, we will need an estimated 50% more food. And meeting an increasingly higher food demand without adding to greenhouse gas emissions (the current food production now contributes 1/3 of all emmissions) is of considerable interest as well as sustainable necessity, or further eroding bio-university is a daunting task.
Read more including research into making alternative food sources more palatable at:
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20180821-are-forgotten-cr3ops-the-future-of-food
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Michele, this is wonderful and encouraging. Â That link doesn't work though. Â Could you repost? Â Thanks! Â
I removed the "3" from "crops." Here's the link: http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20180821-are-forgotten-crops-the-future-of-food
Thanks, this is so interesting. The same may be happening in Mexico with an ancient strain of corn that can be grown in poor soil under adverse conditions. They are trying to bring it back today.  http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20180821-are-forgotten-crops-the-future-of-food
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Not only was it 16 to 20 feet tall, dwarfing the 12-foot stuff in American fields, it took six to eight months to mature, far longer than the 3 months needed for conventional corn. Yet it grew to those impressive heights in what can charitably be called poor soil, without the use of fertilizer." -- Smithsonian Magazine
Thanks, Marley for catching my apparent finger snag and add of a 3 into my link 3 posts above...thanks Jeanne for reposting my words and corrected link.
For those not understanding the inherent problems with current conventional corn crops (not alternative forms of ancient corn that may avoid some of the sustainability issues)Â and our intense need for alternative food sources, please read this amazing in-depth explanation of just how intense our current need for sustainable crops...especially our current problematic corn crops are: