Staple Food - Demographic Profile of Staple Foods

Demographic Profile of Staple Foods

Average kcal/person/day, 2001-2003 Food energy consumption per person, per day, worldwide. Except for war-torn countries, the world is eating more staples per capita per day, despite rising world population.

Of more than 50,000 edible plant species in the world, only a few hundred contribute significantly to human food supplies. Just 15 crop plants provide 90 percent of the world's food energy intake, with rice, maize and wheat comprising two-thirds of human food consumption. These three alone are the staples of over 4 billion people.

Although there are over 10,000 species in the cereal family, just a few have been widely cultivated over the past 2,000 years. Rice alone feeds almost half of humanity. Roots and tubers are important staples for over 1 billion people in the developing world; accounting for roughly 40 percent of the food eaten by half the population of sub-Saharan Africa. Cassava is another major staple food in the developing world, providing a basic diet for around 500 million people. Roots and tubers are high in carbohydrates, calcium and vitamin C, but low in protein.

The staple food in different parts of the world is a function of weather patterns, local terrain, farming constraints, acquired tastes and ecosystems. For example, the main energy source staples in the average African diet are cereals (46 percent), roots and tubers (20 percent) and animal products (7 percent). In Western Europe the main staples in the average diet are animal products (33 percent), cereals (26 percent) and roots and tubers (4 percent). Similarly, the energy source staples vary widely within different parts of India, with its colder climate near Himalayas and warmer climate in its south.

Most of the global human population lives on a diet based on one or more of the following staples: rice, wheat, maize (corn), millet, sorghum, roots and tubers (potatoes, cassava, yams and taro), and animal products such as meat, milk, eggs, cheese and fish. Regional staple foods include rye, soybeans, barley, oats, and teff.

With economic development and free trade, many countries have shifted away from low-nutrient density staple foods to higher nutrient density staple foods. Despite this trend, there is growing recognition of the importance of traditional staple crops in nutrition. Efforts are underway to identify better strains with superior nutrition, disease resistance and higher yields.

Some foods such as quinoa - pseudocereal grains that originally came from the Andes - were also staple foods centuries ago. Oca, ulluco and amaranth seed are other foods claimed to be a staple in Andean history. Similarly, pemmican is claimed to be a staple of natives of the Arctic region (for example, the Inuit and Metis). The global consumption of specialty grains such as quinoa, in 2010, was very small compared to other staples such as rice, wheat and maize. These once popular, then forgotten grains are being reevaluated and reintroduced.

Ten staples that feed the world (by annual production)

		World production 2008	Average world yield 2010	World's most productive farms 2010
Rank	Crop	(metric tons)	(tons per hectare)	(tons per hectare)	Country
1	Maize (Corn)	823 million	5.1	28.4	Israel
2	Wheat	690 million	3.1	8.9	Netherlands, Belgium
3	Rice	685 million	4.3	10.8	Australia
4	Potatoes	314 million	17.2	44.3	USA
5	Cassava	233 million	12.5	34.8	India
6	Soybeans	231 million	2.4	3.7	Turkey
7	Sweet potatoes	110 million	13.5	33.3	Senegal
8	Sorghum	66 million	1.5	12.7	Jordan
9	Yams	52 million	10.5	28.3	Colombia
10	Plantain	34 million	6.3	31.1	El Salvador