Legumes, the poorman’s bread
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3989/arbor.2016.779n3002Keywords:
Legumes, botany, food, cooking, folklore, geneticsAbstract
Domesticated at the same time as the first cereals and other carbohydrate-rich crops, legumes have maintained close ties with these in all aspects of human life: in the land, traditions, and as food for man or animal feed. However, in modern farming they are only considered to be second class crops, in spite of continuous calls for their use in balanced diets and in crop rotations to increase soil fertility by fixing atmospheric nitrogen, avoiding excess use of synthetic fertilizers. Because of their high protein content they were known as “the poorman’s meat”. Moreover, their ability to fertilize soil was greatly valued by ancient agronomists since Greek and Roman times. Rather than focusing on the technical aspects of legumes, the present article considers the relationship between man and legumes from different perspectives, including their role in the History of Science, being protagonists of fundamental studies such as those carried out by Mendel, Galton and Johannsen, as well as the first description of a QTL.
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