Crops Change to Meet the Demand of a Growing Local & US Population
When we think of crops we generally conjure up a field of wheat, barley, corn, asparagus or any other edible plant grown on a farm. However, the Advanced English Dictionary fortunately gives me more latitude in its definition: “A cultivated plant that is grown commercially on a large scale.”
For thousands of years before the arrival of Europeans on the shores of South Carolina, Native American farmers in the region, cultivated corn, beans and squash. However, after the colonization of the area by those immigrating from Spain and Great Britain, the crops became “what made the most money,’ as opposed to ‘what tasted good and was nourishing’.