Sustainable Agriculture and Food: Four volume set (Earthscan Reference Collections)

22 Before Agriculture

Table 1.3

!Kung Bushman plant foods

Part eaten

Totals (%)

Food class

Fruit and nut

Bean and root

Fruit and stalk

Root, bulb

Fruit, berry, melon

Resin Leaves Seed,

bean

Total number of species

in class

Estimated

contribution by weight

to vegetable diet

Estimated

contribution of each species

I. P

RIMARY

Eaten daily throughout year (mongongo nut)

1

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

1

c. 50

c. 50

a

II. M

AJOR

Eaten daily in season

1

1

1

1

4

—

—

—

8

c. 25

c. 3

III. M

INOR

Eaten several times per week in season

—

—

—

7

3

2

2

—

14

c. 15

c. 1

IV. S

UPPLEMENTARY

Eaten when classes I–III locally unavailable

—

—

—

9

12

10

1

—

32

c. 7

c. 0.2

V. R

ARE

Eaten several times per year

—

—

—

9

4

—

—

—

13

c. 3

c. 0.1

VI. P

ROBLEMATIC

Edible but not observed to be eaten

—

—

—

4

6

4

1

2

17

nil

nil

Total Species

2

1

1

30

29

16

4

2

85

100

—

a 1 species constitutes 50 per cent of the vegetable diet by weight.b 23 species constitutes 90 per cent of the vegetable diet by weight.c 62 species constitutes the remaining 10 per cent of the diet.

b c