Humans started growing melons as crops around four thousand years ago. Since then, melons became one of the most abundantly cultivated fruits and today rank among the top 10 crops in terms of economic importance. Cultivated melons, like many other agricultural plants, originated from wild... click to read more

Salads, vegan milk, yogurt, marzipan - all these products contain healthy sweet almonds. The almond ancestor, which still grows in the wild, carries bitter almonds. Consumption of its bitter kernels can be lethal to us and to wild herbivores. The bitterness comes from the presence... click to read more

Modern tomatoes have weaker flavor than older heirloom varieties, and consumers often complain about their "tastelessness". But, how did these tasteless tomatoes arise? - one cause is breeding. Tomatoes have been continuously bred to improve their agricultural features. While these features mostly include firmness for... click to read more

Durum wheat is one of the most important food crops for human consumption in the world, and it is used mainly for pasta production. The origin of this crop dates back to the Neolithic, about 10,000 years ago, in the Fertile Crescent, the cradle of... click to read more

Cassava is a staple food crop in sub-Saharan Africa, where millions of people eat it every day. It's an especially important source of food during times of drought, because cassava is a hardy plant that continues to produce its starchy storage roots when water is scarce... click to read more