Book excerpt: Vegetables make up a major portion of the diet of humans and are critical for good health. With the world population predicted to reach 9 billion people by 2050, they will play an increasingly important role in food availability. The purpose of this book is to facilitate accuracy in communication among individuals working in agriculture and a better understand of the extent and diversity of vegetable production and utilization worldwide. Increasing global economic interdependence and trade in agricultural products makes precise communication among individuals utilizing different languages essential. There is currently a wide range of vegetables shipped around the world as seasonal, economic and other forces are shifting markets from exclusively local toward global. The text provides up-to-date scientific names, synonyms, and common names for the commercially cultivated vegetable crops grown worldwide (404 crops), in addition to information on the plant parts utilized and their method of preparation. Common names from 370 languages are presented along with information on each of the languages. The text represents an essential reference source with the information presented in a concise and readily accessible format. It allows indentifying a crop from the common name in a diverse cross-section of languages and is therefore of use to university and government researchers, libraries worldwide, agricultural organizations, agricultural scientists, embassies, international travelers, vegetable growers, shippers, packers, produce buyers, grocery store managers, gourmet restaurants, chefs, and gardeners.