Skip to content
Surprising Science

The Real Ant Farms

New research indicates that New World ants, who fastidiously cultivate crops in their underground lairs for food, have updated the crops they grow over time.
Sign up for the Smarter Faster newsletter
A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people

“Approximately 50 million years ago, some Amazonian ant species discovered that raising fungi could provide a more stable food source than just foraging on the rainforest floor. Thus, they became farmers. Now, more than 200 species of New World ants cultivate crops, fastidiously fertilizing, cleaning, and weeding delicate white fungal filaments in their underground lairs. And, like human farmers who exchanged ancient emmer wheat for modern varieties, these ants have updated the crops they grow over time, according to new research.”

Sign up for the Smarter Faster newsletter
A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people

Related
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Curabitur in sem nisi. Donec at convallis felis. Curabitur id mattis libero. Nunc maximus dolor eget iaculis lobortis. Mauris eros mi, mattis […]
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Aenean volutpat ultricies nibh, ac placerat urna. Vivamus augue arcu, consectetur vitae est mollis, laoreet congue ante. Quisque a aliquet eros, ac […]
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nulla finibus bibendum ligula, malesuada placerat libero vehicula vestibulum. Nulla ut tincidunt arcu, quis scelerisque dolor. Nunc pretium justo tristique nunc eleifend, […]

Up Next
“Modern eco-foodies are full of good intentions,” writes Robert Paarlberg. But “the hope that we can help others by changing our shopping and eating habits is being wildly oversold to Western consumers.”