VEGETABLES - World Food: Production and Use - page 132

Figure 4.4. Major vegetable-producing countries of the world (the number of different types
of vegetable crops produced is shown in the key at the bottom of the map (associated numbers
are the numbers of vegetable crops produced). (Data used to construct this map was taken from
FAOSTAT http: // faostat.fao.org / default.aspx.)

dependencies. 1 Keep in mind that small countries may provide significant amounts of
vegetables to local areas but do not produce enough to be counted on a world basis and
that small amounts of specialty vegetables are often grown in local areas. The distri-
bution of the major vegetable of the Philippine, Ecuador, and the United States is
shown in Figure 4.3. Figure 4.4 shows the major vegetable-producing areas of the
world today. The number next to the shaded block is the number of different
vegetables produced.

4.4 HISTORY

Because vegetables are general highly perishable and they have been adapted and bred
into plants that look nothing like their progenitors, identifying their origins is quite dif-
ficult and open to controversy. In Figure 4.5 the areas of the world where various veg-
etables are thought to have originated is indicated. However, as can be seen several
vegetables are thought to have originated in several locations. These areas are particu-
larly rich in historical or archeological records, and this may lead to the assumption
that they are the general origins rather than being the true, specific, origin points of
the particular vegetables mentioned.