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Agrain is a small, hard, dryfruit (caryopsis) – with or without an attachedhull layer – harvested forhuman oranimal consumption.[1] Agrain crop is a grain-producing plant. The two main types of commercial grain crops arecereals andlegumes.
After being harvested, dry grains are more durable than otherstaple foods, such as starchy fruits (plantains,breadfruit, etc.) andtubers (sweet potatoes,cassava, and more). This durability has made grains well suited toindustrial agriculture, since they can be mechanicallyharvested, transported by rail or ship, stored for long periods insilos, andmilled forflour orpressed foroil. Thus, thegrain market is a major globalcommodity market that includes crops such asmaize,rice,soybeans,wheat and other grains.
In thegrass family, a grain (narrowly defined) is acaryopsis,[2] a fruit with its wall fused on to the single seed inside, belonging to a cereal such as wheat, maize, or rice. More broadly, inagronomy and commerce, seeds or fruits from other plant families are called grains if they resemble cereal caryopses. For example,amaranth is sold as "grain amaranth", and amaranth products may be described as "whole grains". The pre-Hispanic civilizations of the Andes had grain-based food systems, but at higher elevations none of the grains belonged thecereal family. All three grains native to the Andes (kaniwa,kiwicha, andquinoa) are broad-leaved plants rather than grasses.[3]
Many different species of cereal are cultivated for their grains.[4]
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Starchy grains from broadleaf (dicot) plant families are cultivated as nutritious alternatives to cereals. The three major pseudocereal grains are:[5]
Pulses or grainlegumes,[6] members of thepea family, have a higher protein content than most other plant foods, at around 20%, while soybeans have as much as 35%. As is the case with all other whole plant foods, pulses also contain carbohydrates and fat. Common pulses include:
Oilseed grains[7] are grown primarily for the extraction of theiredible oil. Vegetable oils provide dietary energy and someessential fatty acids.[8] They are also used as fuel and lubricants.[9]
Because grains are small, hard and dry, they can be stored, measured, and transported more readily than can other kinds of food crops such as fresh fruits, roots and tubers.[10] The development of grain agriculture allowed excess food to be produced and stored easily which could have led to the creation of the first temporary settlements and the division of society into classes.[11]
This assumption that grain agriculture led to early settlements and social stratification has been challenged byJames Scott in his bookAgainst the Grain.[12] He argues that the transition from hunter-gatherer societies to settled agrarian communities was not a voluntary choice driven by the benefits of increased food production due to the long storage potential of grains, but rather that the shift towards settlements was a coerced transformation imposed by dominant members of a society seeking to expand control over labor and resources.
Thegrain trade refers to the local and internationaltrade incereals such aswheat,barley,maize, andrice, and otherfood grains. Grain is an important trade item because it is easily stored and transported with limited spoilage, unlike other agricultural products. Healthy grain supply and trade is important to many societies, providing a caloric base for mostfood systems as well as important role inanimal feed foranimal agriculture.
The grain trade is as old as agricultural settlement, identified in many of the early cultures that adopted sedentary farming. Major societal changes have been directly connected to the grain trade, such as thefall of the Roman Empire. From theearly modern period onward, grain trade has been an important part ofcolonial expansion and international power dynamics. The geopolitical dominance of countries like Australia, the United States, Canada and the Soviet Union during the 20th century was connected with their status as grain surplus countries.
More recently,international commodity markets have been an important part of the dynamics offood systems andgrain pricing.Speculation, as well as other compounding production and supply factors leading up to the2007–2008 financial crises, created rapid inflation of grain prices during the2007–2008 world food price crisis. More recently, the dominance ofUkraine andRussia in grain markets such as wheat meant that theRussian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 causedincreased fears of aglobal food crises in 2022. Changes toagriculture caused by climate change are expected to have cascading effects on global grain markets.[13][14][15][16]Those who handle grain at grain facilities may encounter numerousoccupational hazards and exposures. Risks includegrain entrapment, where workers are submerged in the grain and unable to extricate themselves;[17]explosions caused by fine particles ofgrain dust,[18] andfalls.
