 |
| When tomatoes first arrived in Italy from South America, they were used as decorative plants, not for food. It took decades for them to be integrated into the local cuisine, but today we can't imagine Italian food without them. |
What’s most interesting, though, is the consequences of adopting a new crop or agricultural technique. The transition to new, non-native staple crops fundamentally altered entire populations and ecosystems: facilitating unprecedented population growth and economic rise, but also setting the stage for future catastrophes, such as the Irish Potato Famine and malnutrition in Africa.
We ought to pay attention to this story, and to the motivations and methods of Renaissance explorers (which were dubious at best), because with modern transportation and cold-chain technology, as well as highly-advanced farming techniques, a global exchange of crops and produce is once again altering the course of humanity. My mom had never even heard of cilantro or quinoa until she was an adult; I’ve eaten both for as long as I can remember. We’re in the middle of the Columbian exchange part 2, but this time it’s even bigger and more complex, and who knows where it will take us.
Sources
Levrier-Jones, George. “Changing Our View of History? The Columbian Exchange and the Ecological Mindset - History Is Now Magazine, Podcasts, Blog and Books: Modern International and American History.” 24 May 2018, http://www.historyisnowmagazine.com/blog/2018/5/20/changing-our-view-of-history-the-columbian-exchange-and-the-ecological-mindset#.XXqIK2jYqb4=.
“Columbian Exchange.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 12 Sept. 2019, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbian_exchange.
I loved the title! It was the reason why I read this post. It is crazy how huge an impact the sharing of foods has on economy and history!
ReplyDeleteI agree with Joe, awesome title! I think it is super important and fascinating to think about food throughout history, especially produce. Thank you for this very informative post!
ReplyDeleteI totally got sucked down a rabbit hole learning about what banana republic meant! I love etymology and that was one of the most interesting I have seen recently. Thanks for that little word-history adventure!
ReplyDeleteWoah.. I had never thought that my parents had never been introduced to some of the foods that I take for granted every day. Super funny to also think that tomatoes were just a decoration! Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteReally interesting! It got me thinking, what did banana's taste like back in the day?
ReplyDeleteYou mentioned that the consequences of introducing new crops was a cause for Africa's malnutrition. Is that true? Could you give some examples?
For sure! Of course it's a super complicated problem and history and this is just one small example, but one big problem in sub-Saharan Africa right now is food systems that depend entirely on maize, which is a non-native crop that began infiltrating Africa in the 16th century. Before that, the staple crops were things like sorghum, millet, and cowpeas, which are all much higher in protein and micronutrients than maize. To African farmers in the 16th century maize made a lot of sense, since it was higher-yielding than the native plants they'd been growing and also tasted better. However an unexpected side-effect of a maize-intensive diet is severe nutrient deficiencies. So today subsistence farmers are starving partly because of a decision their ancestors made thousands of years ago.
Delete