Kale, the green leafy cruciferous vegetable, is certainly a phenomenon. According to US Department of Agriculture data, farm production of kale in the US rose 60% between 2007 and 2012. Even more recently, from 2013 to 14, a survey of restaurant menu's showed a 47% increase in the use of the word kale. And if you can believe it, in 2008, 539 American children were actually named Kale! But what have the drivers been behind the kale-ification of the planet? And what can we expect in terms of the demand of this “superfood” going forward?

The Benefits of Kale — A Nutrition Superstar?

A great reason for Kale’s popularity in recent years is because the media often touts it as a “superfood”. It is certainly nutrient-dense, since it contains large amounts of vitamins A, K, B6 and C, calcium, potassium, copper and manganese. And research has shown that the vegetable can be a powerful fighter against prostate and colon cancer, breast cancer and lung cancer. 

Cultural Impact

In 2012 the American Kale Association hired a PR company to much success, and from 2013 to 2014 the word kale increased 47 percent on American menus. This came off the back of a 2011 TV event, when Gwyneth Paltrow made kale chips on "Ellen", the demand for the vegetable changed forever, and this was a powerful PR boost. More recently in 2013, Beyonce wore a shirt emblazoned with the word ‘KALE’ in her music video for “7/11”.

Kale Products

There are several varieties of kale, including curly kale, dinosaur kale, redbor kale and Russian kale. And kale chips, kale noodles, kale muffins, and picked kale are just some of the many kale-based products you can find in the supermaket today.

But perhaps things aren’t quite as rosey as they seem when it comes for the demand for kale. In a September 2019 article in The Atlantic entitled “The Kale Craze Might Be Ending”, author Amanda Mull put a dampener on things. “Kale’s cultural ubiquity might not be exactly what it seems. After kale briefly overtook spinach as America’s favorite cooked green in mid-2014, Google’s measure of interest in kale has steadily declined. The green’s digital fortunes are currently back at about where they were in 2011, almost as if Paltrow had never kale-chipped”, she writes. But kale’s drop in Google Trends doesn’t necessarily indicate its broader decline in popularity in people’s diets. The truth is Kale has a strong history.

The History of Kale - Food For Thought

Although Kale has had a strong PR boost in recent years, it has been one of the most popular vegetables throughout Europe for over 2,000 years. Where did the English word “kale” originate? Well, the Danish and Swedish call the vegetable “kål,” the Germans refer to it as “kohl” and the Scottish,“càl”. Whatever various Europeans named it, Kale was the most widely eaten green vegetables in the Middle Ages. The idea it’s suddenly popular and suddenly a staple, is inaccurate. As one of the oldest forms of cabbage, native to the eastern Mediterranean or Asia Minor, it’s been a staple in our diets since time immemorial. And that won’t be changing anytime soon!

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