Amaranth

Some amaranths (pigweeds, Amaranthus spp.) are useful for people to eat or to feed to animals. The grain amaranths had a long history of being people’s staple food in parts of the Andes until Spain colonised there. After that, these crops were driven almost completely from cultivation.

Brian Clark Howard at the National Geographic tells us how amaranth could be the new quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa).

Could an amaranth comeback happen? With enough investment and political will, perhaps it could happen. Here’s a book about breeding better amaranth.

Would an amaranth comeback be a good thing? Only if the people who grow the crop reaped its benefits. Sam Eaton at The World says poor people could be glad of amaranth.

As my fellow blogger Noah Zerbe at Global Food Politics explains, some say that the International Year of Quinoa backfired. If there’s an amaranth…