Proper technique for eating grass?
In my world, a species of vertically challenged humanoids spreads out from their island homelands to the wider world, entering the interspecies race for global dominance. Now, this species of humanoids are quite disadvantaged in a straight fight against any other, being the smallest at but 1.1 meters tall, however, this in reality is a contest not of might, but niche effectiveness. You see, hominids are all more or less generalist / opportunistic hunters - animals that are broadly omnivorous (eating berries, seeds, certain foliage, etc) and broadly predatory, hunting game of any size. Hominids were very, very, good at this strategy, which allowed them to spread anywhere such calorie sources were available (i.e. everywhere on Gaia's green earth). That being said, there exists an ecological concept called Competitive Exclusion Principal, where when two species occupy the same niche in the same area, they compete, and whichever species exploits the niche most effectively displaced the other.
Now, generalist is truly a contest of "who can exploit the most calories in a given area" and, given a more diverse food set, the most general generalist wins. Here in lies the most ultimate prize in untapped calories for a hominid "” grass (and leaves). Very few generalist exploit this nigh-omnipresent food source*, and the sheer amount of it could keep a hominid fat when most others would starve, allowing them greater population and a greater range than any other, along with an easy way to outcompete its competition. However, two problems abound:
grass (and leaves) are tough and wear on teeth
grass (and leaves) are difficult to break down, making the energy spent in digestion take up most of the calories contained in the grass, blunting the competitive edge
Seeing as how even the best grazers and browsers have, at best, middling solutions for these issue given millions of years of evolution, a purely evolutionary solution is unrealistic. So now we turn to the human ability to develop skills and technique.
What technique could be implemented to release the most calories from grass and leaves?
Note: Yes, I am aware that cereals and corn count as grass, but human consumed varieties are far fewer and are more work and resource intensive to produce
This post was sourced from https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/q/138782. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
1 answer
Cooking
Cooking plant materials takes care of the problem of the grasses being too hard on our teeth or digestive systems. In many cases, breaking down the fibers and so forth will release more calories and micronutrients. Some of this can also be done with fermentation.
Once a species has the ability to make and control fire, and to make a few tools such as clay pots, cooking is an easy task, along with gathering. Eating and digesting are faster, so overall it doesn't take more time in a society large enough to have specialists (pot makers, fire tenders, wood or dung gatherers, etc).
The problem is that most grasses (aside from the grain portion and a few exceptions like sugarcane) are not suitable human food. They don't provide enough nutrition for hominids in general.
The only ways to change that are:
- Evolution of the species to be able to get large portions of its calories from grass. This takes a very long time.
- Evolution of the grass to meet the hominid's needs. This also takes a lot of time and requires evolutionary pressure that may not be present.
- Selective breeding of the grasses. Not as long a time, a few centuries, maybe longer for the grass family.
- Agriculture. Gathering and planting seeds (or tubers) of high-nutrition plants so they displace the low-nutrition grasses.
- Using a method you've dismissed: Eating animals (or their milk) that have digested the grass for you. In other words, agriculture.
- Or the other method you dismissed: Harvesting the nutritious portion of the grass, the grain (or the stalk juice, in the case of sugarcane). Cooking and sprouting both increase digestibility.
- Fermentation. This will produce the calories you want, in an easy to digest form. As alcohol. But it's not really the best way to get most of one's calories. And you need to mostly use the grain portion. (You can also ferment the stalks/leaves to break them down without heat.)
Consider this a frame challenge. To use skills and technique, you must accept use of skills and technique.
If you are truly looking to be quicker than evolution and to use "the human ability to develop skills and technique" your answers are:
- Agriculture
- Animal husbandry
- Fire/cooking/fermentation/other food prep techniques
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