[Sca-cooks] crop timeline research

[ruadh]

from US News .... this is a snip.........

Squash detective. In a similar way, research on ancient plant domestication
could help improve today's crops, says Bruce Smith, an archaeobotanist with
the National Museum of Natural History. He has pinpointed the origins of
squash domestication to 10,000 years ago in Oaxaca, Mexico, and plans to
cross wild squash with genetically modified squash to test whether genetic
tinkering might threaten biodiversity.

Scientists are also on the trail of the first domesticated corn, beans,
carrots, and garlic. One group recently announced dating the first
domesticated maize, from a cave in Oaxaca, to about 6,300 years ago. Other
work is revealing corn's genetic transformation from an unappetizing,
unwieldy plant to the easily harvestable and succulent crop of modern times.

More if/when I find it.... Ru