Crops fashioned by Man

A brief history of corn

Family: graminacea
Having never existed in a wild state, maize, or corn, owes its existence to man. Probably created from teosinte, a wild grass of Central and South America, it is grown by Indians on the high plateaus in Mexico. In its primitive forms corn dates back at least 80,000 years. With the discovery of the New World in the 15th century, Christopher Columbus brought some back to Europe. What he didn't know was that he was providing Europe with the possibility of growing the most widespread cereal in the world: 785 million tons in 2009!

Wheat or 15,000 years of history

Family: graminacea
Domesticated in Mesopotamia, grown in Europe, and then spreading to all continents during the period of the great explorations, wheat is, in itself, an epic tale. It was around 15,000 BC in the steppes of the Near East that nomads began collecting the ears of these wild plants. They discovered that the grain of these plants - of the family of grasses - is particularly nourishing, and what is more that it keep well. These hunter-gatherers made the most of this discovery without realizing that they had identified one of the ancestors of common wheat. To compensate for times when hunting was tough, they ate this plant, and then learned how to cltivate it and store it. This was the beginning of wheat farming. The creation of durum wheat (pasta), and common wheat (bread), occurred around 6,000 or 5,000 BC. It was farmers who created the first varieties of wheat. By exploring and valorizing the incomparable germplasm of this generous plant, breeders have achieved tens of thousands of forms of wheat.

• A long love affair between Man and tomato
• Flashback over 10,000 years of breeding
• The "de Vilmorin"; 260 years of prestigious history