What Types of Food Come From South America and When Were Potatoes First Cultivated In South America?

Many of the food items that people all over the world enjoy originated in South America.

For example, potatoes were first cultivated about 7,000 years ago in the Andes mountains.

Tomatoes were also first grown in South America, in the area of today’s Peru and Ecuador.

Also native to the continent are peanuts, yams, pineapples, lima beans, and several types of peppers and chilies.

If it weren’t for a bean called cacao, also native to South America, we wouldn’t have chocolate.