User:Sarah-Lea Rose/sandbox

Domestication
Goosefoot was cultivated alongside three other starchy-seed-bearing plants, namely maygrass, little barley and knotweed, providing an important nutritional basis for indigenous groups at the time. At about 1600 BC, another annual starchy seed crop, maize, appeared in the Eastern Woodlands. Maize would later on come to dominate much of North American agriculture. However, for about 3000 years, maize formed only a minor component of garden or field plots By about 1150 AD, it became a major dietary constituent of prehistoric populations in the Eastern Woodlands. This essentially led to a substantial decrease in goosefoot cultivation. Nonetheless, pitseed goosefoot remained important up until the point of European contact, after which it virtually disappeared.

There is also evidence that indigenous people used pitseed goosefoot not only for subsistence, but also for medicinal and preservative reasons. Chenopodium berlandieri appears to prevent intestinal parasites and has the capacity of preserving meals. These qualities may have been part of the reason why indigenous people kept cultivating goosefoot despite the relatively large effort of harvesting its minuscule seeds.

Yield and importance in world food system
The yield of pitseed goosefoot can vary substantially due to the differences in amount of sunlight received by the plants. Moreover, competition with surrounding plants can also influence how much yield is obtained. Studies have recorded yields between 276 to 2854 kg/ha and estimate that the harvest yield of goosefoot in prehistoric times must have been around 750-1500 kg/ha. A yield above 1000 kg/ha must have been necessary to justify its use compared to maize. Additionally, the harvest rate of pitseed goosefoot is about 1 kg/hour.

Today, pitseed goosefoot has very little presence within the current world food system, especially compared to other plants within its genus, suchas Chenopodium quinoa or Chenopodium ambrosioides. This may be due to a recent Western bias against weedy plants, as well as a manifestation of colonial history which led to a disconnect from the local environment and indigenous knowledge.