My Foodprint

Crimson flowered broad bean. Champion of England pea. Bath cos lettuce. Rowsham park hero onion. These are all vegetables reported as extinct in a 2007 article in the Telegraph U.K.

The odd sounding names are largely due to a British system of categorization that for centuries has been affixing humorous labels to everything on U.K. soil, but behind those names is an alarming point. Over the last century, the article states, we have lost over 98 percent of the vegetable biodiversity on this planet. And today, 95 percent of vegetable consumed come from 20 species of plants.

These figures illustrate how production farming for specific breeds of fruits and vegetables has narrowed not only the availability of certain fruits and vegetables, but has constricted our ideas of these fruits and vegetables. We think of a carrot as bright orange and snappy. But what about the Afghan Purple Carrot? They didn’t make the cut. What have risen to the top of the heap as the most ubiquitous foods have been deemed the most profitable in terms of growing season, toughness for shipping, and adaptability for cross breeding with other species.

In response to the conscious narrowing of breeds Slow Food USA has created the Ark of Taste. Just as the Department of Fish and Wildlife Services has its Endangered Species list, the Ark of Taste is a list of the most endangered foods. On the list are the Blenheim Apricot grown in the Santa Clara Valley in California. In the early 1900’s the Blenheim Apricot was commonplace but as other varieties proved to be more durable travelers and ripened earlier, the Blenheim became less popular and less profitable. Also on the list are several varieties of peach: the Oldmixon peach, the Rio Oso Gem peach, the Silver Logan peach, and the Sun Crest peach. The Ark of Taste also provides information on the farms who still grow these products. The hope is that by informing eaters who want to venture beyond what is provided at supermarkets, an expansion, or perhaps reversal of our manipulated food system can occur.

Without sounding too pessimistic, one of the most important things to remember in this modern age of cooking and eating is that the supermarket, often thought of as a cornucopia of variety, is truly a calculated system. The apples and pears and lettuce in the vegetable aisle have been chosen by companies for characteristics most relevant to capitalism, not taste. Beyond, sometimes way beyond, the factory farm and supermarket exist varieties of foods never seen or tasted. It is our job to find them.

–Nick