Food is devilishly complicated. Vanilla was not successfully pollinated by humans until 1841, which meant that it did not grow outside of the natural range of

Food is devilishly complicated. Vanilla was not successfully pollinated by humans until 1841, which meant that it did not grow outside of the natural range of its pollinator in Mexico (and only a very small region of Mexico.) And today most vanilla does not come from vanilla beans but is synthesized from petrochemicals, because vanilla's pollination is still ridiculously expensive. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/bittersweet-story-vanilla-180962757/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/bittersweet-st...