What is human's (one) staple food, as asked by either an incompetent or utterly alien, alien xenobiologist
March 3, 2008 9:37 PM Subscribe
Which crop provides humanity's major source of carbohydrates in a year?
6+ billion humans. A large number of genera and species of plants are consumed for food purposes.
Which group of plants (ie., rice, corn, wheat) supply the highest source or carbohydrates to humans over the course of a year?
Major candidates are rice (2+ billion people in China and India alone), wheat (food relief/aid comes in the form of wheat from Canada; multiple agricultural areas of the world are described as "breadbowls" or "breadbaskets" [wheat growing regions{?}]), and corn (high fructose corn syrup consumption in North America - 300+ million people, but they only need to consume an extra 6 - 7x the amount of carbohydrate calories from corn).
Other long-shot considerations; the potato or soy (I've heard xth-hand that soy's the most abundant crop in the world - ? ).
6+ billion humans. A large number of genera and species of plants are consumed for food purposes.
Which group of plants (ie., rice, corn, wheat) supply the highest source or carbohydrates to humans over the course of a year?
Major candidates are rice (2+ billion people in China and India alone), wheat (food relief/aid comes in the form of wheat from Canada; multiple agricultural areas of the world are described as "breadbowls" or "breadbaskets" [wheat growing regions{?}]), and corn (high fructose corn syrup consumption in North America - 300+ million people, but they only need to consume an extra 6 - 7x the amount of carbohydrate calories from corn).
Other long-shot considerations; the potato or soy (I've heard xth-hand that soy's the most abundant crop in the world - ? ).
This is a difficult question to answer because it is hard to know how much of each crop actually ends up being eaten by humans (versus being used as animal feed or otherwise). Still, I would think that wheat would be a good educated guess.
World crop production from the USDA: In 05/06 621.5 million metric tons of wheat, 417.6 MT of rice, 696.3 MT of corn, and 220.4 MT of soy were grown.
From USAID, wheat has 333.5 kcal/100g, rice has 365 kcal/100g, corn has 365 kcal/100g, and soy (different site, PDF) has 416 kcal/100g.
So the contest is between corn and wheat, with corn production in calories 23% greater than wheat production. I don't have any data to back this up, but I'd be very surprised if the percentage of wheat that ended up in animal feed was not much less than the percentage of corn that ends up in animal feed. Wheat seems like the winner. There is also a chance that rice is has a significantly higher ratio of eaten to uneaten production than wheat, which could make up for the 36% greater production of calories of wheat than rice. Perhaps someone else can dig up some data on actual consumption.
Potatoes are nowhere near those other crops: though world production was 319 MT, potatoes have a much lower calorie density of 80 kcal/100g.
posted by ssg at 10:35 PM on March 3, 2008
World crop production from the USDA: In 05/06 621.5 million metric tons of wheat, 417.6 MT of rice, 696.3 MT of corn, and 220.4 MT of soy were grown.
From USAID, wheat has 333.5 kcal/100g, rice has 365 kcal/100g, corn has 365 kcal/100g, and soy (different site, PDF) has 416 kcal/100g.
So the contest is between corn and wheat, with corn production in calories 23% greater than wheat production. I don't have any data to back this up, but I'd be very surprised if the percentage of wheat that ended up in animal feed was not much less than the percentage of corn that ends up in animal feed. Wheat seems like the winner. There is also a chance that rice is has a significantly higher ratio of eaten to uneaten production than wheat, which could make up for the 36% greater production of calories of wheat than rice. Perhaps someone else can dig up some data on actual consumption.
Potatoes are nowhere near those other crops: though world production was 319 MT, potatoes have a much lower calorie density of 80 kcal/100g.
posted by ssg at 10:35 PM on March 3, 2008
Also, I was surprised to learn that Canada is not really a major wheat producer, growing only about 4% of the total world production.
posted by ssg at 10:44 PM on March 3, 2008
posted by ssg at 10:44 PM on March 3, 2008
In 2006, 695 million tons of maize were grown, followed by 635 million tons of rice and 605 million tons of wheat.
In 2005, the world potato crop was 319 million tons. Soybeans lagged far behind, at 214 million tons.
Calculating the quantity of carbohydrates each of them provides to humans is more difficult. Despite being the largest tonnage, maize (corn) isn't the largest source of carbohydrates directly consumed by humans because a very large amount of corn is used for animal feed, converted into eggs, milk, and meat. And as of the last couple of years, a significant and rising percentage of American corn is being used to produce ethanol for fuel. (Enough corn has been diverted to fuel production by this point to have caused price disruptions in the entire food chain worldwide.)
Rice contains 79% carbohydrates; wheat is 68%. But given that the total production of both is so similar, it's really hard to judge which is the largest source of carbohydrates consumed by humans.
For instance, a fair amount of rice is used in the US for beer production. There ain't a lot of malted barley in Budweiser, I'm afraid. And most of the carbohydrates in that rice is consumed by yeast.
Likely rice and wheat are tied with one another, within plus or minus 10%.
posted by Class Goat at 10:52 PM on March 3, 2008
In 2005, the world potato crop was 319 million tons. Soybeans lagged far behind, at 214 million tons.
Calculating the quantity of carbohydrates each of them provides to humans is more difficult. Despite being the largest tonnage, maize (corn) isn't the largest source of carbohydrates directly consumed by humans because a very large amount of corn is used for animal feed, converted into eggs, milk, and meat. And as of the last couple of years, a significant and rising percentage of American corn is being used to produce ethanol for fuel. (Enough corn has been diverted to fuel production by this point to have caused price disruptions in the entire food chain worldwide.)
Rice contains 79% carbohydrates; wheat is 68%. But given that the total production of both is so similar, it's really hard to judge which is the largest source of carbohydrates consumed by humans.
For instance, a fair amount of rice is used in the US for beer production. There ain't a lot of malted barley in Budweiser, I'm afraid. And most of the carbohydrates in that rice is consumed by yeast.
Likely rice and wheat are tied with one another, within plus or minus 10%.
posted by Class Goat at 10:52 PM on March 3, 2008
I wonder where Wikipedia got their production numbers, given that they disagree so much with USDA numbers? One thing that occurs to me is that the USDA numbers are quantities produced for sale, whereas Wikipedia's source is total produced, including production directly consumed by subsistence farmers?
posted by Class Goat at 10:54 PM on March 3, 2008
posted by Class Goat at 10:54 PM on March 3, 2008
Best answer: While I foolishly looked up production data, KokoRyu linked to FAOSTAT where the actual food consumption data was found (select WORLD and click). Rice is the winner at 542 kcal/person/day, only slightly ahead of wheat at 518 kcal/person/day. Corn is way behind at 153kcal/person/day, potatoes are about half that, and soy is almost insignificant at 16kcal/person/day.
posted by ssg at 11:02 PM on March 3, 2008
posted by ssg at 11:02 PM on March 3, 2008
I wonder where Wikipedia got their....numbers,
It's wikipedia. Unless there's a cite, the answer to that question is always "some dude."
posted by dersins at 11:22 PM on March 3, 2008 [1 favorite]
It's wikipedia. Unless there's a cite, the answer to that question is always "some dude."
posted by dersins at 11:22 PM on March 3, 2008 [1 favorite]
And remember, "corn" is American for "maize", and in English "corn" means any cereal grass, though typically whatever is the principle one in the region being discussed.
posted by orthogonality at 12:52 AM on March 4, 2008
posted by orthogonality at 12:52 AM on March 4, 2008
Yes, KokoRyo's link has the answers. I was surprised that sugar came in third, well above maize. Which gets you thinking, why do they grow so much corn? Well most of it is used to feed animals and thus provide kcal to people as well. According to this (pdf) page, again from the FAO about 427 additional kcal are provided via the top ten animal products (flesh, milk or eggs).
posted by shothotbot at 5:32 AM on March 4, 2008
posted by shothotbot at 5:32 AM on March 4, 2008
I think there is an argument for corn. Live stock is corn fed. HFCS. Practically everything we eat has something to do with corn. People may eat more sugar or rice, but corn drives much of the food we eat. I think that this is addressed in the Omnivore's Dilemma.
posted by Medieval Maven at 5:46 AM on March 4, 2008
posted by Medieval Maven at 5:46 AM on March 4, 2008
The Chinese don't just eat or grow rice. Remember much of the country is cold and dry(think where they grow rice in the US, yeah Louisiana, not exactly Iowa eh?) They grow a lot of maize (corn, indian corn, whatever you want to call it), wheat, barley, millet, triticale and buckwheat.
posted by Pollomacho at 6:08 AM on March 4, 2008
posted by Pollomacho at 6:08 AM on March 4, 2008
Much of the world's maize production goes to animal feed, which gets turned into protein before being eaten by humans. So I'd go for wheat as the largest source of carbohydrates for human consumption, even though maize is the world's largest staple crop.
posted by goingonit at 6:19 AM on March 4, 2008
posted by goingonit at 6:19 AM on March 4, 2008
The first couple of chapters of The Omnivore's Dilemma delves into this (the author focuses on corn since it so dominates the U.S. diet) and I seem to recall that a non-Western staple--sorghum, maybe?--made a very impressive showing.
posted by kittyprecious at 6:20 AM on March 4, 2008
posted by kittyprecious at 6:20 AM on March 4, 2008
The cassava plant gives the highest yield of food energy per cultivated area per day among crop plants, except possibly for sugarcane (ref. wikipedia).
posted by booksprite at 10:20 AM on March 4, 2008
posted by booksprite at 10:20 AM on March 4, 2008
Medieval Maiden, while the Omnivore's Dilemma does highlight corn in the USA, remember it also details the market distortions that led to this situation. In most of the rest of the world corn isn't propped up by similar subsidies, so is used less for feed and HFCS etc.
For example, my Coke is still made with sugar.
posted by bystander at 8:16 PM on March 4, 2008
For example, my Coke is still made with sugar.
posted by bystander at 8:16 PM on March 4, 2008
For example, my Coke is still made with sugar.
Huh?
Sugar exports by country:
Australia - 3958 tons
USA - 0 tons
Corn (maize) exports by country:
Australia - 0 tons
USA - 46000000 tons
US corn exports make up between 60 and 70 percent of the world market. Why when we have to import sugar to meet present demand would Coke make their product in the US with cane or beet sugar when corn syrup is so readily available and likewise why would they make their product in Australia with imported corn syrup when Australia exceeds their own sugar demands enough to enter the export market?
posted by Pollomacho at 7:01 AM on March 6, 2008
Huh?
Sugar exports by country:
Australia - 3958 tons
USA - 0 tons
Corn (maize) exports by country:
Australia - 0 tons
USA - 46000000 tons
US corn exports make up between 60 and 70 percent of the world market. Why when we have to import sugar to meet present demand would Coke make their product in the US with cane or beet sugar when corn syrup is so readily available and likewise why would they make their product in Australia with imported corn syrup when Australia exceeds their own sugar demands enough to enter the export market?
posted by Pollomacho at 7:01 AM on March 6, 2008
That's what I mean, Pollomacho. The corn subsidies in the US lead to massive over-production, which in turn leads to corn substituting for other ingredients - like when HFCS replaced sugar and when corn feed replaced grass for cattle.
In countries where corn is not subsidised it hasn't replaced those things. I was suggesting to Medieval Maiden that corn seems much more pervasive in the US than it is in other countries.
posted by bystander at 4:47 PM on March 6, 2008
In countries where corn is not subsidised it hasn't replaced those things. I was suggesting to Medieval Maiden that corn seems much more pervasive in the US than it is in other countries.
posted by bystander at 4:47 PM on March 6, 2008
I think you missed my point. Corn is grown in the US because we have the climate and soil conditions to grow it, Sugar, not so much. Australia on the other hand has regions with the climate and soil conditions for sugar, corn not so much. The subsidies exist in the US for corn production because we have farmers that can grow corn in massive quantities. We don't so much subsidise banana farming or sago palm farms here, are you suggesting that if we did that Iowans would suddenly start planting bananas?
posted by Pollomacho at 8:17 PM on March 6, 2008
posted by Pollomacho at 8:17 PM on March 6, 2008
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by allen.spaulding at 9:57 PM on March 3, 2008