More Info -
What would pizza look like before 1492?
It would not have had tomato sauce. That is because tomatoes are from South America. Before Columbus made his voyage in 1492, the Italians who invented pizza had never seen a tomato. As people migrated over the centuries, they took their familiar food crops along, spreading them to areas outside of their origin. Many foods traveled great distances. However, before 1492, not one food crop had been exchanged between the old and new worlds. Columbus took many old world foods with him to the new world and returned with many new world foods beginning the process known as the "Great Seed Exchange." The seed exchange resulted in both positive and negative consequences.
Europe -
Many plants were domesticated throughout Europe especially root crops and members of the cabbage family. Africa -
Most of Africas food plants originated from an area of domestication in Northern Africa. Asia -
We have included India and everything to its east in this garden. Asia had two sites of domestication both occurring along rivers in eastern China. Note that cucumbers originated in India. North America -
There were two sites of domestication in North America. One was in what is now the Southwest United States. The other was on the Mexican plateau. An important crop from this area was teosinte, a wild grass from Mexico that all corn descended from. South America -
South Americas site of domestication was in the Andes Mountain range. Middle East -
The Middle Easts Fertile Crescent is where the earliest signs of plant domestication have been found. Carrots originated a little farther east from the Fertile Crescent in Afghanistan.
Resources -
Food Plant Origins
Crop Origins
Geographic Luck of Plants
Geographic Luck of Plants Lesson
Seeds of Change Garden
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