CBC Radio One Windsor interviewed a woman in London, Ontario who was planting a garden for a food bank (I think? I was half paying attention)– and she mentioned a few vegetables she was growing that I had never heard of, including two in the carrot family (Apiaceae).
It got me thinking about how many of our problems in agriculture are the product of monoculture– the setup in which you plant the same crop, everywhere, again and again (or in a very simple rotation, but all with the same crop at the same time).
Why is this bad?
Most generally, a reduction in biodiversity means less biological resilience. Crops that must only compete with themselves are more susceptible to pests– to say nothing of growing problems like insecticide, herbicide, and pesticide resistance. The high level of energy intensity of industrial production of crops like corn and soybeans– requiring staggering levels of enormously energy-intensive ammonia fertilizer- is, as they say, a whole ‘nother thing.
It gets weird when we get to the plant called the earth chestnut. Wikipedia says there are two plants with this name, bunium bulbocastanum and conopodium majus. In the case of the latter, Wikipedia notes that the plant is variously named “kippernut, cipernut, arnut, jarnut, hawknut, earth chestnut, groundnut, and earthnut. From its popularity with pigs come the names pignut, hognut, and more indirectly Saint Anthony’s nut, for Anthony the Great or Anthony of Padua, both patron saints of swineherds.”
Saint Anthony’s Nut.
Huh!
We also got another one I had never heard of, called Good King Henry (blitum bonus-henricus– not sure about “blitum” but “bonus-henricus” is pretty straightforward). A species of goosefoot. What’s goosefoot? Who knows? Wikipedia says this is typically regarded as a weed but has been cultivated for a long time.
Our intrepid Ontario farmer also mentioned salsify— which I think I’ve had perhaps once– another root vegetable.
One of my favorite figures in Midwestiana or sustainability discourse is Wes Jackson of the Land Institute in Salina, Kansas– who has written extensively on this question of how to promote more perennial crops rather than annual crops, working with nature rather than simply seeking to conquer it.
Why so much in the carrot family? Why these “weird” vegetables rather than something like tomatoes, which are both easy to grow and nutritious? CBC’s interviewee didn’t say. But it was another reminder that there are oodles of plants that we can grow in our backyard well beyond the limited range of products available even in the best supermarkets. Certainly plenty beyond corn and soybeans, which represent 87% of US agriculture.
We know it’s time to move beyond this paradigm because it’s fucking up our whole shit. If we can produce dozens of cultivars of brassicas, apples, carrots, potatoes, tomatoes, and more, why not these, too? Why indeed.