|"lacto-fermented hogweed soup (+eggs): the original borscht"|
Wild plant species, even for agrarian peoples or pastoralists
who mainly used animal products, would have assumed a special
importance during times of crop failure and famine. Some of
these are the species that we know of today as “weeds”: species
well adapted to disturbed conditions and often associatedwith
human habitation. In turn, some of these weeds became the
candidates for domestication: for example, mustards, wild
carrot, chicory and lettuce. Altogether, widely used
domesticated species comprise only a fraction of the 20,000 or
so plant species known to have been used as food by humans.
Canadian Indigenous peoples alone have used over 500 species of
plants for food. In recent times, however, especially in urban
areas of the world, most people have come to depend on fewer and
fewer species to provide them with their daily nutrition. Today,
only around 20 domesticated species supply up to 85% of the
world’s food base.What follows then is a t