Nigeria, June 2 -- As someone who spent my early life in rural Nigeria, one of the most surprising things I observed in rural America was vegetable canning.

In my experience in the village, okro, tomatoes, and peppers were literally dried in the sun to preserve them for use in the dry season. These same farming products were preserved by canning methods principally due to a stark difference in geography.

Plants have evolved strategies shaped by geography. For example, fruits form a biological contract with insects (via nectar) for pollination, and with animals and humans (via fruit sweetness) for seed dispersal. Obviously, seeds and grains are incapable of photosynthesis and therefore depend on the fats that are embedded in them for gro...