Ripe for revival

It’s lunchtime in 2050. What’s on the menu? Stefano Padulosi likes to think he can tell. He’s head of underutilised food crops for the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI) in Rome. And without him, you wouldn’t be eating rocket salad, which he found in the ruins of Pompeii. Padulosi says high quality minor crops are a better route to food security than many of today’s mass-produced varieties, which are low in vitamins and minerals. He told Fred Pearce how crops such as hulled wheat, jackfruit and the bambara groundnut should move from sideshow to centre stage in the…