How potatoes change the world

When potatoes bloom, they will grow five petals, flashing like fat purple stars in the field. It is said that Marie Antoinette liked these flowers so much that he put them in his hair. Her husband Louis XVI, in his eyes, inspired a temporary fashion, wandering among French aristocrats wearing potato plants. These flowers are part of an attempt to persuade French farmers to plant and French diners to eat this strange new species.

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From the United States to Europe and back, potatoes are more than just videos: discovering potatoes.

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Some Andean people obviously learned to add clay to wild potatoes to neutralize the natural toxins of tubers; Later they developed non-toxic varieties. (Photo by Martin Meijia/Associated Press) It is said that Marie Antoinette has potato flowers in her hair. Although potatoes are now associated with industrial-scale monoculture, the International Potato Center in Peru has preserved nearly 5,000 varieties. (Photo by Martin Megia/Associated Press) Spanish explorers usually reluctantly imitate potato eaters in South America. Antoine Augustine parmentier promoted potatoes in France to stop bread riots. (Mary Evans Photo Gallery/Everett Collection) The population of Ireland has not recovered from the potato blight. (Granger Collection, new york/Granger Collection) This bug called the Colorado Potato Beetle didn't eat potatoes at first. The pesticide industry was born when a pigment that could kill beetles was discovered. (Theodore Gray) In the past 40 years, Peru has mined about 654.38+03 million tons of bird droppings from the Chincha Islands. (alexander gardner /NYPL) Chino-a kind of potato frozen, thawed, squeezed and dried, which provided fuel for the Inca army. (Aitan Abramovich/AFP/Getty Images Library)

Today, potato is the fifth largest crop in the world after wheat, corn, rice and sugarcane. But in the18th century, tuber was an amazing novelty, some people were afraid, others were confused, which was part of the global ecological turmoil triggered by Columbus 250 million years ago. Geological forces split the Pan-continent and formed the continent and hemisphere as we know it today. For thousands of years, various animals and plants have developed in different corners of the earth. Columbus's voyage reweaved the seams of the pan-continent, borrowing a sentence from the historian Alfred W. crosby, who first described the process. In crosby's so-called Columbus Exchange, the long-separated ecosystems in the world suddenly collided and mixed into a biological chaos, which is the basis of many histories we studied in school. The potato flower in Louis XVI's eyes is a plant crossing the Atlantic Ocean from Peru. It is not only a symbol of Columbus exchange, but also one of its most important aspects.

Tubers are naturally more productive than grains. If the spike of wheat or rice grows too big, the plant will fall down, causing fatal consequences. Tubers grow underground and are not restricted by other plants. In 2008, a Lebanese farmer dug up a potato, which weighed nearly 25 pounds. It's bigger than his head.

Many researchers believe that the arrival of potatoes in northern Europe means the end of famine there. (Corn, another American crop, played a similar but smaller role in southern Europe) More importantly, as historian William H. McNeill said, potatoes led to the formation of empires: "By feeding a rapidly growing population, (it) allowed several European countries to rule most of the world from 1750 to 1950." In other words, it promoted the rise of the West.

Equally important, the adoption of potatoes in Europe and North America has set a template for modern agriculture, the so-called agricultural and industrial product Lex. Columbus's communication not only brought potatoes to the other side of the Atlantic, but also brought the world's first intensive fertilizer: Peruvian bird droppings. When potatoes were attacked by another imported crop, the Colorado potato beetle, panicked farmers turned to the first artificial pesticide: arsenic. The competition to produce more effective arsenic mixtures has opened up the modern pesticide industry. In the 1940s and 1950s, improved crops, high-intensity fertilizers and chemical pesticides triggered the Green Revolution, and the explosive growth of agricultural productivity changed farms from Illinois to Indonesia, which triggered a political debate on the increasingly tight food supply. 1853, Alsace sculptor.

In offenburg, a man named Andrias Friedrich erected a statue of Sir Francis Drake. It depicts the British explorer staring at the horizon in a familiar illusion. His right hand is on the hilt. He has a potato in his left hand. "Sir Francis Drake", the base announced,

It was our Lord who spread potatoes in Europe in 1586. Millions of people who cultivated the earth blessed his immortal memory.

This statue was overthrown by the Nazis at the beginning of 1939, in the wave of anti-semitism and anti-foreign measures after the violent fanaticism known as Crystal Night. Destroying statues is a crime against art, not history: Drake almost certainly didn't introduce potatoes to Europe. Even if he did, most of the credit for potatoes must belong to the Andean people who domesticated potatoes.

Geographically, the Andes are unlikely to be the birthplace of major food crops. It is the longest mountain range on the earth, forming an ice barrier as long as 5,500 miles and as high as 22,000 feet along the Pacific coast of South America. Active volcanoes distributed along its length are connected by geological faults, and these faults squeeze each other, resulting in earthquakes, floods and landslides. Even if the earthquake is calm, the climate in the Andes is active. The temperature in the highlands can fluctuate from 75 degrees Fahrenheit to below zero in a few hours, and the air is too thin to keep heat. In this land of despair

Formed one of the greatest cultural traditions in the world. When the Egyptians built the pyramids, people in the Andes were also building their own memorial temples and ceremony squares. For thousands of years, from Ecuador to northern Chile, disputed ethnic groups have been fighting for power. The most famous people today are the Incas, who occupied most of the Andes in an instant, built magnificent highways and cities, and then became victims of Spanish diseases and Spanish soldiers. The plants cultivated in the mountains are different, but they are all nourished by tubers and root crops, which are the most important among potatoes.

Wild potatoes contain solanine and lycopene, and toxic substances are considered to protect plants from harmful organisms such as fungi, bacteria and humans. Cooking usually destroys this chemical defense, but solanine and lycopene are not affected by heat. On the mountain, wild relatives Guanaco and Vicunia of llamas lick clay before eating poisonous plants. These toxins are technically easier to "adsorb" clay particles in animal stomachs and pass through the digestive system without affecting the digestive system. The villagers imitated this process and apparently learned to soak wild potatoes in "gravy" made of clay and water. In the end, they cultivated potatoes with low toxicity, although some ancient and toxic varieties still exist because they are very resistant to frost. Clay powder is still sold to them in markets in Peru and Bolivia.

Eating clay will never exhaust the cooking creativity in this field. To be sure, Andean Indians eat boiled potatoes, baked potatoes and mashed potatoes like Europeans. But potatoes should also be cooked, peeled, chopped and dried to make papaya; Ferment in stagnant water to make sticky and fragrant potatoes; Grinding it into slurry, soaking it in a kettle, and filtering to make Almi polysaccharide. Farmers eat tubers. In Britain, farmers in the18th century denounced tuber cabbage as an advance scout who hated Roman Catholicism. "No potatoes, no popcorn!" It is the campaign slogan of 1765. The adoption of potatoes in France is particularly slow. Antoine Augustine parmentier of the potato company Johnny Appleside also joined the fight. Parmentier served in the Seven Years' War and was captured by Prussia five times. During his many prison sentences, he only ate potatoes, which kept him healthy. 1763 after the war, Parmentier's surprise at this route made him a pioneering nutrition chemist. He devoted his life to spreading Streptococcus tuberose.

Parmentier's timing is very good. After the coronation of Louis XVI in 1775, he lifted the price control of grain. The soaring price of bread triggered the so-called flour war: there were more than 300 civil strife in 82 towns. Parmentier tirelessly declared that as long as French citizens eat potatoes, France will not fight for bread. At the same time, he also set up one publicity stunt after another: providing a full potato dinner for senior guests (the story says that one of the guests, Thomas Jefferson, was very happy that he introduced French fries to the United States); It is said that he persuaded the king and queen to wear potato flowers; Parmentier planted 40 acres of potatoes on the edge of Paris, knowing that hungry money would steal them.

I unconsciously changed potatoes when I was growing them. All potatoes in Europe are descendants of some tubers transported by curious Spaniards from the sea. When farmers plant tubers instead of seeds, the buds produced are cloned. Without knowing it, Parmentier strongly advocated planting potato clones on a large scale, which was a true monoculture.

The impact of this transformation is so striking that any general history of Europe that is not recorded in its tuber nematode index should be ignored. In17th century and18th century, hunger was common in Europe. In most years, the food supply in cities is quite sufficient, and their granaries are closely monitored, but the country people are teetering on the cliffs. Historian Fernand Braudel once calculated that during the period from 1500 to 1800, there were 40 national famines in France, more than once every ten years. He wrote that this appalling figure was underestimated, "because it ignored hundreds of local famines." France is no exception; From 1523 to 1623, there were 17 national and regional famines in Britain. The mainland simply can't feed itself reliably.

Potatoes changed all this. Every year, many farmers leave half of their valleys fallow for fallow and weeding (summer farming). Now small farmers can plant potatoes in fallow fields and control weeds by weeding. Since the yield of potatoes is so high, the effective result is to double the food supply in Europe from the point of view of heat.

It was discovered for the first time in the history of Western Europe that this was the ultimate solution to the food problem. In 1970s, Belgian historian Christian vandenbroucke concluded that by the end of 18, potatoes had become the staple food in the Andes in most parts of Europe. About 40% Irish people don't eat solid food except potatoes; The figures for the Netherlands, Belgium, Prussia and Poland are between 10% and 30%. The frequent famines in this country have almost disappeared. This 2000-mile-long mountain range extends from Ireland in the west to the Urals in Russia in the east. Finally, the mainland can finally produce its own dinner.

It is said that the Chincha Islands give off an inaccessible stench. The Kunsha Islands are part of three dry granite islands, which are located at 13 miles from the south coast of Peru. Almost nothing grows on them. The only difference between them is seabirds, especially Peruvian boobies, Peruvian pelicans and Peruvian cormorants. Attracted by many schools, he left. The first obvious symptom is that the purple-black or purple-brown spots on the leaves can be seen in about 5 days. By then, plants often have no time to survive.

Infected people prey on solanaceae plants, especially potatoes and tomatoes. Scientists believe that it originated in Peru. Large-scale traffic between Peru and northern Europe began with guano fever. The evidence will never be found, but it is generally believed that these guano ships carry pathogenic Phytophthora. Phytophthora infestans may be brought to Antwerp. Phytophthora infestans first broke out in the early summer of 1845 in Kortrijk, a small town in West Flanders, 6 miles from the French border.

The epidemic spread to Paris before August. A few weeks later, it destroyed potatoes in Holland, Germany, Denmark and England. The country * * * panicked. 1845 Ireland reported in September 13. Cormac, an economist and epidemic historian at University College Dublin? Cormac O Grada estimated that Irish farmers planted about 2,654.38 million acres of potatoes that year. Within two months, the pathogenic Phytophthora destroyed the land equivalent to 500,000 to 750,000 acres. The second year is worse, and the second year is worse. The attack didn't end until 1852. 1100,000 or more Irish people died of one of the worst famines in history, accounting for the percentage of population loss. A similar famine in the United States today will kill nearly 40 million people.

Within ten years, another two million people fled Ireland, and nearly three-quarters of them fled to the United States. There will be more. Until the 1960s, the population of Ireland was only half of 1840. Today, this country has a depressing difference, that is, it is Europe, and perhaps the only country in the world where the population within the same border is less than that of 150 years ago.

Despite its terrible appearance, in the long run, being infected with Plasmodium may not be as important as another imported species: Leptinotarsa decemlineata, a Colorado potato beetle. Despite its name, this orange and black creature is not from Colorado. In the original habitat of south-central Mexico, it is not very interested in potatoes; Its diet centers on buffalo, a kind of overgrown, prickly and knee-high potato relative. Biologists believe that buffaloes were confined to Mexico until the Spanish, the agent of Columbus Exchange, transported horses and cattle to America. Indians soon realized the usefulness of these animals, so they stole as much as possible and sent them to the north for their families to ride and eat. Buffalo burr is obvious here, wrapped in horsehair, oxtail and local saddle bag. Beetles followed. 65438+In the early 1960s, it met potatoes planted around the Missouri River and liked its taste.

For thousands of years, potato beetles have been experimenting with buffalo scattered on Mexican hills. According to Parsons, a farm in Iowa is full of potatoes, which is simply an ocean of breakfast. Because growers only plant a few varieties of a species, the natural defense range of pests such as beetles and Fusarium wilt is narrower. If they can adapt to potatoes in one place, they can jump from the same food pool to the next-this task is easier than ever because of the invention of railways, ships and refrigeration technology. There are too many beetles. When they reach the Atlantic coast, their shiny orange bodies cover the beach, making the tracks impassable.

Desperate farmers tried their best to drive away the invaders. Finally, a man apparently spilled some leftover green paint on his infected plants. It worked. The jadeite pigment in the pigment is Paris green, which is mainly composed of arsenic and copper. It was developed at the end of 18 and is mainly used for paint, fabric and wallpaper. Farmers dilute it with flour and sprinkle it on potatoes, or mix it with water and spray it.

For farmers who grow potatoes, Paris green is a godsend. For chemists, this can be remedied. If arsenic can kill potato beetles, why not try it?