The three basic crops that dominate modern diets – corn, rice and wheat – familiar to Americans. but, Fourth place occupies a dark horse: Kasava.
While almost unknown in moderate climates, Cusava is a major source of nutrition In all parts of the tropical regions. He was Domesticated 10,000 years agoOn the southern margin of the Amazon basin in Brazil, and spread from there all over the region. With stains a few meters a few meters away, a handful of slim branches and humble papers in manual, It doesn’t look like anything special. The appearance of the modest casafa, however, it depends on an impressive mixture of productivity, hardness and diversity.
Over the course of thousands of years, the people of the indigenous people raised them from the wild plant to a Crops that store wonderful quantities of starch In the internal tubers, it flourishes in the poor soil in Amounia and is almost unreasonable for pests.
The numerous Cassava origins seem to make it the perfect crop. But there is a problem: Cusava is very poisonous.
How can the kissafa be very toxic, yet it still dominates the meals in the Amazon? Everything to the ingenuity of the indigenous people. Over the past ten years, my collaborators, Cesar Benia, and I was studying Cusava Gardens on the Amazon River and its countless tributaries in Peru. We have discovered dozens of categories of Kusava, and farmers who use advanced education strategies for toxic management and detailing methods to treat their dangerous and nutritious products.
A long history of plant domestication
Among the tremendous challenges the first people faced was getting enough to eat. Our ancient ancestors relied on hunting and gathering, arresting the prey on the range and collecting eating plants at every chance. They were amazingly good at it. Very good that their population rose, and they rose Outside the birthplace of humanity in Africa 60,000 years ago.
However, there was room for improvement. Searching for landscapes for food burns, the resource that is searched for. This paradox was forced to comply with the fisherman’s collectors: burning calories in search of food or preserving calories by staying at home. The comparison was almost uninterrupted, but humans found a way.
A little more than 10,000 years ago, they cleared Aqaba with one of the most transformational innovations in history: Domestication of plants and animals. People discovered that when plants and animals were tamed, they no longer need to chase them. It can be selectively raised and produced The largest fruits and seeds And loose muscles to eat.
Cusava was the domesticated hero factory in neotropics. After its initial domestication, it spread across the area, and reached sites north in the far north of Panama Within a few thousand years. The growing fully growing fully grows in the need for people to search for the forest, but it reduces pregnancy, providing abundant and reliable food supplies near the house.
Today, almost every rural family across the Amazon has a garden. Visit any beds and you will find roasting of Cava over the fire, as it is roasted in a flat rubber bread called Casabe, ferment in the beer called Masato, and the evaporation in soup and vanity. Before adopting the Kusava in these roles, people had to know how to deal with its toxicity.
Perfect plant processing
One of the most important strengths in Cassava, which is resistant to pests, is provided by a strong defense system. The system depends on two chemicals produced by the plant, Linamarin and Linamaraase.
These defensive chemicals inside the cells are found throughout the leaves of the Kusafa Factory, the leg and tubers, where they usually sit in lethargy. However, when the cells are damaged, by chewing or crushing, for example, Linamarin and Linamaraase react, which led to the launch of an explosion of harmful chemicals.
One of them is notorious: cyanide gas. The explosion also contains other bad materials, including compounds called nitril and Cyanohydrins. Large doses of them are fatal and permanently chronic exposure The damage of the nervous system. Together, these toxins decreased well to the extent that the Kusava Almost for pests.
Nobody knows how people broke the problem first, but the ancient Amazon invented a complex multi -name process to remove toxins that convert the ingry without delicious.
It begins with starchy roots in Cassava on teeth teeth teeth, rock chips, or most often today, a sheet of tin. Show the chewing of pests, causing root cyanide and Cyanohydrins. But they drifted in the air, not in the lungs and stomach as is the case when they are taken.
Next, the chopped usava is placed in the rinsing baskets where it is rinsed, pressed by hand and dried frequently. The work of the water releases more cyanide, nitril and hydrine, and rinses them.
Finally, the resulting pulp can be dried, removing toxins from it, or cooked, which ends the process using heat. These steps are very effective that they are still used throughout the Amazon today, Thousands of years since its first time.
A power crop is preparing to spread
Amazon traditional methods of grinding, rinsing and cooking are an advanced and effective way to convert a toxic plant into a meal. However, the Amazon pushed their efforts further, and tame it to a real domesticated crop. In addition to the invention of new ways to treat the kissafa, they started tracking and developing the varieties selectively with the desired characteristics, gradually Production of a constellation of species Used for different purposes.
On our trips, we found more than 70 of the very diverse, physically and nutritional cava species. They include types ranging in toxicity, some of which need hard shredding, rinsing and other things that can be cooked as they are, although nothing can be eaten. There are also types of different tuberculosis sizes, growth rates, starch production and tolerance with dehydration.
Their diversity is precious, and they are Often gave fictional names. Just as the apples of the American supermarkets, the American supermarkets, the Fuji, the delicious Golden and Jeddah Smith, Amazon, the gardens of the shares are called Pofu (Dolphin), Arbin (Harbun), Motilo (the turtle) and countless others. This cava raised creativity in the Amazon cultures and meals, ensuring that it can be managed and beneficial, just like domestication cornand rice and wheat Their places were strengthened in cultures elsewhere.
While the Kusava was directed in southern and central America for thousands of years, its story has not yet ended. In the age of climate change and stabilization efforts towards sustainability, Cusava appears as a possible global crop. Durability and flexibility make it easy to grow in changing environments, even when the soil is bad, and reduces the resistance of natural pests from the need to protect it through industrial pesticides. In addition, while the traditional Amazon methods of removing toxins from Cassafa can be slow, they are easy to repeat and accelerate modern machines.
Moreover, the Amazon farmers ’preference to maintain a variety of Kusava makes the Amazon a natural warehouse of genetic diversity. In modern hands, they can be raised to produce new types, and appropriate purposes outside those in the Amazon itself. These advantages motivated the first export of Kassafa outside South America In 1500sSoon its range in tropical Africa and Asia. Today, production in countries such as Nigeria and Thailand Far production in the largest product in South AmericaBrazil. These success The source of the environmentally friendly nutrition For population worldwide.
Although Kisava is not a familiar name in the United States until now, it is on its way. It has long been transferred under the radar in the form of tabioca, which is the starch of the kisafa used in Buding and Shi Buba. It also strikes shelves in the snack corridor in the form Kusava chips And the bread corridor in gluten -free flour. Raw Cassava is also an emerging presence, which appears under the names of “YUCA” and “ManioC” in stores that meet the needs of Latin, African and Asian residents.
Follow and try it. Cusava supermarket is completely safe, and the recipes are many. Cassfa piesand Cusava potatoesand Cake cakes … the possibilities of Kusava Almost endless.
This article was written before Cesar Robin Benia.
This article has been republished from ConversationAn independent, non -profit news organization brings you facts and trusted analysis to help you understand our complex world. Written by: Stephen Woodingand University of California, Mercyd
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Stephen Wooding receives funding from Project Amazonas, a non -profit organization that supports humanitarian and research projects in the Peruvian Amazon.
