Green beans, also known as runner beans and runner beans, are produced commercially throughout the world. They are easy to plant and grow and delicious to eat. The primary production of green beans in the United States is in Oregon, Wisconsin, and western New York (Taber, 1). A little history on the first American beans; Beans are one of the oldest cultivated plants. The common bean has been cultivated for six thousand years in the Americas. Columbus and other early explorers discovered that Native Americans planted runner beans in their corn gardens and that many older, shade-tolerant, long-maturing bean varieties still exist from companies that sell ancient seeds. These early American beans are picked when the pods are full of immature beans. Stringing beans is an obligatory step in their preparation. There are over 4,000 bean cultivars recorded in the United States alone. The world leader in green bean production is Brazil, followed by India and then China. Here are some statistics taken from a study carried out in June 2008: Brazil has more than 3 million green bean producers, India 3 million, China almost 2 million, Mexico 1.3 million, the United States 1.1 million, and all that added up. With the countries mentioned and many more, the total number of green beans produced in 2008 was almost 20 million. (FAOSTAT data) Green beans come in many shades of yellow, purple, green and red. All colored beans are called "green beans" because they are pulled out and eaten at an immature stage, that is, just before the seeds are fully ripe. There are two types of podded beans, round podded beans and flat podded beans. Most canned round-podded green beans have fleshy, round pods with very few seeds inside... middle of paper ...... delicious to eat. Works Cited “Green Bean Facts.” Cooking activities for children. 2006. February 19, 2011. .Pleasant, Barbara. “Growing Real Green Beans.” News from Mother Earth. September 2006. February 9, 2011. < http://www.motherearthnews.com/Organic-Gardening/2006-09-01/Growing-Real-Green-Beans.aspx#ixzz1EEkHXfAL>."Statistics by subject." USDA-NASS. 2010. February 19, 2011. .Taber, Henry G.. “Green Bean Production.” Iowa State University. March 2009. February 11, 2011. “The 5 main green bean producing countries”. Top 5 of anything. February 19. 2011. .