Tomato domestication involved agricultural societies from Peru to Mexico
Published Date: 3/1/2022
Source: phys.org
The plants we eat have been domesticated. There are no wild chihuahuas, in the wilderness there are wolves and, likewise, there are no wild big and juicy tomatoes, bread wheat or popcorn maize in the wild. Our forebears modified these species to adapt them to their needs, uses, and tastes. The tomato was domesticated by native american cultures thousands of years ago. Unfortunately, there are few tomato archeological remains and many questions to answer. Although some of these issues have been discussed for decades, most of them still have no final answers. For instance, it has been proposed that the domestication could have been carried out in Mesoamerica, the region comprising Mexico and Central America, or, alternatively, in Peru and Ecuador, but there has been no definitive evidence capable of settling the debate.