1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created (74 page)

CHAPTER
6 /
The Agro-Industrial Complex

    1
Introductory potato facts: Spooner and Hijmans 2001:2101 (species and types [but see later discussion]); Clarkson and Crawford 2001:70–73 (12.5 lbs.); Zuckerman 1998:83 (Marie Antoinette [but see below]); Bourke 1993:90–100 (potato consumption, table 4); Salaman 1985:572–73 (potato war); Kon and Klein 1928 (167-day diet); Gerard 1633: 752 (“knowledge of them”), 925 (“Virginia potato,” “common potatoes”). Production rankings from Food and Agriculture Organization (
faostat.fao.org
). Laufer (1938:15) dismisses the story of Marie Antoinette/Louis XVI as “a good historiette.” McNeill (1999:78), Salaman (1985:599), and Langer (1975:55) accept the tale. Cuvier (1861:vol. 2, 15), who knew Antoine-Augustin Parmentier, the supposed provider of the potato flowers, reports that Louis XVI wore the plant in his buttonhole, inspiring the vogue.

    2
Giant potato: Anon. 2008. “Lebanese Finds ‘Heaviest’ Potato,” British Broadcasting System, 8 Dec. (
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7771042.stm
).

    3
Potato as Europe’s savior: Standage 2009:120–29; Reader 2009:95–117; McNeill 1999:69 (“and 1950”); Zuckerman 1999:220–28 (his book’s subtitle is “How the Humble Spud Rescued the Western World”).

    4
Drake statue: Reddick 1929.

    5
Andean societies: Good overviews include Silverman ed. 2004, D’Altroy, 2002, and esp. Moseley 2001. A popular summary is Mann 2005:chaps. 6–7. See also Gade 1992 (“sophistication,” 461), 1975. Eruptions: Siebert and Simkin 2002–.

    6
Evolution of
S. tuberosum
: Zimmerer 1998:446–49ff.; Brush et al. 1995:1190; Grun 1990 (four species); Ugent et al. 1987 (thirteen thousand); Ugent et al. 1982 (2000
B.C.
).

    7
Clay and solanine: Guinea 2006; Browman 2004 (licking); Johns 1986 (adsorption); Weiss 1953. My thanks to Clark Erickson for telling me about these sources.

    8
Andean potato treatments: Author’s visits; e-mail, Clark Erickson; Yamamoto 1988; Gade 1975:210–14. My thanks to Susanna Hecht for pointing out the parallel between
chuño
and gnocchi.

    9
Twenty degrees: Mayer 1994:487.

  10
Terraces: Sarmiento de Gamboa 2009:132 (“
andenes
”); Denevan 2001:17–18, 170–211 (extent of terracing, 175); Donkin 1979. My thanks to Clark Erickson and Bill Denevan for helpful discussions.

  11
Raised fields: Denevan 2001:24–25, 219, 264–65; Erickson 1994.

  12
Wachos
: Author’s interviews and e-mail, Erickson and Denevan; Wilson et al. 2002; Sánchez Farfan 1983:167–69; Bruhns 1981.
Wacho
and
wachu
are the Quechua and Aymara terms; they are known in Spanish as
surcos.

  13
Farming methods: Author’s visits; Gade 1975:35–51, 207–10; Rowe 1946:210–16.

  14
Potato variety: Brush et al. 1995; Zimmerer 1998 (“United States,” 451). The potato center landrace database is at
singer.cgiar.org/index.jsp
.

  15
Potato genetics: Jacobs et al. 2008 (“to accept”); Spooner and Salas 2006:9–23 (overview); Huamán and Spooner 2002 (four species); Spooner and Hijmans 2001 (eight groups); Hawkes 1990. Spooner and Hijmans basically relabeled Hawkes’s taxonomy, which described all but one of the cultivars as separate species.

  16
Path of potato to Europe: Reader 2009:81–93; Hawkes and Francisco-Ortega 1993 (Canary Islands); Salaman 1985:69–100 (conquistador’s revulsion, 69); Laufer 1938:40–62 passim; Roze 1898 (Bauhin, 85–88).

  17
Drake: Salaman (1985:144–58), Roze (1898:63–64, 70–74), and, to a lesser extent, McNeill (1999), credit the story. Drake did pick up some potatoes in the Pacific in 1577 (Salaman 1985:147).

  18
Potato fears, support: Reader 2009:111–31 (Frederick, 119); Salaman 1985 (“provoke Lust,” 106; disease, 108–14; Orthodox, 116; “Popery!,” 120); Roze 1898 (establishment, 98; fears, 99, 122–23; “peasants and laborers?,” 143). Beeton 1863:585 (potato water). My thanks to Ted Melillo for drawing the last to my attention.

  19
Parmentier and France: Standage 2009:121–22; Reader 2009:120–22 (Jefferson, 121); Bouton 1993 (summary of Flour War, xix-xxi); Laufer 1938:63–65; Anon. 1914 (captured five times); Roze 1898:148–82ff. (“Nourish Man,” 149; “other countries,” 152); Cuvier 1861.

  20
European famines, Malthusian trap: Clark 2007:1–8, 19–39; Komlos 1998 (“At least until 1800, but in some places even thereafter, the European demographic system was in a Malthusian homeostatic quasi-equilibrium,” 67); Bouton 1993:xix-xxi (food riots); Braudel 1981–84:vol. 1, 74–75 (forty famines, Florence), 143–45 (other quotes); Appleby 1978:102–25ff. (England); Walford 1879:10–12, 266–68 (England).

  21
Young’s observations: Young 1771:vol. 4, 119–20 (“promoted”), 235–36 (grain), 310 (“in it”). Vandenbroeke (1971:37) cites similar figures for the Netherlands.

  22
Four to one (footnote): Atwater 1910:11 (wheat dry matter); Langworthy 1910:10 (potato dry matter). Contemporary breeding has increased the dry matter in both crops a bit.

  23
Potato and food supply: Radkau 2008:6 (“interruptus”); Vanhaute et al. 2007:22–23 (10–30 percent); Malanima 2006:111 (calorie supply doubles); Crosby 2003:177 (complementing existing crops), 1995; Clarkson and Crawford 2001:59–79 (40 percent, 59); McNeill 1999 (one-third to one-half land, 79); Komlos 1998; Zuckerman 1999; Masefield 1980:299–301; Langer 1975; Vandenbroeke 1971:38–39 (“food problem”); Connell 1962:60–61. Potato country: According to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (
faostat.fao.org
), the top twelve potato consumers, all in the Eastern Hemisphere, stretched in a band from Ireland to the Russian Federation and Ukraine. Thanks to Ted Melillo for drawing my attention to Radkau.

  24
Increased reliability: Reader 2009:99 (summer), 118–19 (army); Vandenbroeke 1971:21 (army), 38 (summer crop); McNeill 1999:78 (army); Young 1771:vol. 4, 121–23.

  25
Potato as healthy diet: Zuckerman 1999:6, 31. My sentence about vitamins is a rewritten version of a sentence in Nunn and Qian (2010:169).

  26
Smith quotes: Smith 1979:vol. 1, 176–77 (bk. 1, chap. 11, §n, ¶39). Potatoes and maize were, Smith thought, “the two most important improvements which the agriculture of Europe—perhaps, which Europe itself—has received from the great extension of its commerce and navigation” (vol. 1, 259 [bk. 1, chap. 11, §n, ¶10]).

  27
Potato as cause of population increase: Standage 2009:124–28; Reader 2009:127–29; Clarkson and Crawford 2001:29, 228–33; Zuckerman 1999:220–28; Livi-Bacci 1997:30–34 (doubling); Salaman 1985:541–42; Langer 1975; McKeown et al. 1972; Vandenbroeke 1971:38; Wrigley 1969:162–69; Drake 1969:54–66, 73–75, 157 (Norway). The idea is not new: Alexander von Humboldt said (1822:vol. 2, 440, 449) the potato “has had the greatest influence on the progress of population in Europe.… [N]o plant since the discovery of cerealia, that is to say, from time immemorial, has had so decided an influence on the prosperity of mankind as the potato.” Livi-Bacci (1997:77–78) argues that this view is “countered by a number of considerations,” mainly a decline in grain consumption and real wages. But these declines occurred because farmers were growing more potatoes, which provide better nutrition, and because there were more farmers, which drove down wages. Fogel (2004:3–11) summarizes the debate.

  28
Potato examples: Cinnirella 2008:esp. 253–54 (Saxony); Viazzo 2006:182–92, 212–15, 289–92 (Alps); Pfister 1983:esp. 292 (Alps); Brandes 1975:180 (Spain). See also, Reader 2009: 94–95.

  29
Agricultural revolution: A summary history is Overton 1996.

  30
Clover: Kjærgaard 2003. Turnips, too, were important as a fallow crop, because their broad leaves smothered weeds.

  31
One-eighth of increase: Nunn and Qian 2010 (“conservative,” 37).

  32
Chincha Islands and birds: Cushman 2003:56–59; Hutchinson 1950:9–26; Peck 1854a:150–225 (150 feet, 198).

  33
Need for nitrogen: Smil 2001:chap. 1. A fine summary in Standage 2009:199–214.

  34
Guano on Chinchas: Hutchinson 1950: 14–43 (147 islands, birds, thirty-five pounds), 79–83 (chemical composition).

  35
Pre-European use of guano: Julien 1985; Garcilaso de la Vega 1966:vol. 1, 246–47 (pt. 1, bk. 5, chap. 3). Julien and Gade (1975:44) say guano was brought to the highlands; Denevan (2001:35) believes its use was “limited and localized,” because of the difficulty in transporting it.

  36
Von Humboldt and guano: Fourcroy and Vauquelin 1806 (“they approached,” 370).

  37
Bone market: Walton 1845:167–68 (lack of interest in guano); Anon. 1822 (“daily bread”), 1829, 1832.

  38
Guano mania and Liebig: Cushman 2003:60–62, appendix 1 (export figures); Mathew 1970:112–14; House of Commons 1846:377–78 (“Account of the Number and Tonnage of Vessels … engaged in the Guano Trade”); Anon. 1842a (role of Liebig); 1842b:esp. 118, 138–40, 142–44, 146–47 (view of Science); Johnson 1843; Liebig 1840 (“of maize,” 81–82). See also, Smil 2001:42. Other sources give somewhat different figures for British guano imports, but there is no dispute about their rapid rise. I have seen four editions of Liebig’s book.

  39
Beginning of input-intensive agriculture: Melillo 2011; Cushman 2003:37. I have adapted one of Cushman’s sentences.

  40
Working conditions: Skaggs 1994:chap. 2; Mathew 1977:44–51; Peck 1854a:205–13; Anon. 1853 (“coated with guano,” 555).

  41
Elías’s life: Blanchard 1996.

  42
Importing Chinese to Peru: Meagher 2009:94–100 (warehouses), 176–77 (mutinies), 221–24 (more than 100,000, 222); Wu 2009 (“were killed,” 47); Skaggs 1994:162–63; Schwendinger 1988:23–26; Mathew 1977:36–43 (eight years, 43); Stewart 1970:82–98. Melillo (2011) sets the context.

  43
Mistreatment of Chinese: Meagher 2009:224–29 (cemetery, 226); Wu 2009; Mathew 1977:44–51 (five tons); Stewart 1970 (see, e.g., 21–23, 90–97); Anon. 1856 (torture); Peck 1854a:170, 207–08, 214–16; 1854b (“were digging”).

  44
Guano monopoly and protest: Skaggs 1994:10–15, 21–30; Mathew 1968:569–74; Markham 1862:308–09 (scorn for Peru); Anon. 1854 (“lower price,” 117). Typical U.S. editorials included “The Guano War” (
NYT,
14 Aug. 1853), “The Guano Question” (
NYT,
12 Aug. 1852), and “The Guano Question in England” (
NYT,
29 Sep. 1852).

  45
“economic success”: Miller 2007:149. I have borrowed Miller’s comparison to OPEC, too.

  46
Guano Islands Act: Skaggs 1994:172–97 (Navassa), 213, 230–36; Letter, R. S. Bowler to S. Wike, 16 Sep. 1893. In Magoon 1900:15–16 (official list of islands).

  47
Industrial monoculture: Pollan (2006:41–48) evocatively describes this transformation.

  48
First Green Revolution: Melillo 2011.

  49
Comparison of Europe to African nations: Clark 2007:40–50. I am violently simplifying a complex comparison, but the point is valid. Komlos (1998:68) gives higher figures for European consumption than Clark, but the difference does not alter the comparison.

  50
Impact of fertilizers: Smil 2001 (two out of five, xv). Population change: Livi-Bacci 1997:31, World Bank Development Indicators (
http://data.worldbank.org/
).

  51
Guano averts disaster (footnote): Pomeranz 2000:223–25 (“century,” 224), 240, appendix B.

  52
Two million dead: Zadoks 2008:20–27; Ó Gráda 2000:84–95. Zadoks estimates 750,000 dead in continental Europe, Ó Gráda argues that most estimates of the Irish tally are “one million, or slightly above it” (85). Vanhaute et al. (2007:26) suggest a tally for Europe of “a few hundred thousands” but are not as thorough as Zadoks.

  53
Life cycle of blight: Mizubuti and Fry 2006:450–58 (dispersal, 454–55); Judelson and Blanco 2005; Sunseri et al. 2002 (zoospore travel); Jones et al. 1914:11–13, 30–37.

  54
Peru initially viewed as blight source: Abad and Abad 2004:682; Andrivon 1996; Bourke 1993:148–49.

  55
Mexico as center of diversity, origin: Abad and Abad 2004:682; Grünwald and Flier 2003 (oospores, 174–75); Goodwin et al. 1994 (Mexico to U.S., 11594); Fry et al. 1993:653–55; Hohl and Iselin 1984 (discovery of other type of blight in Europe).

  56
Lack of potato in Mexico: Ugent 1968; Humboldt 1822:vol. 2, 76, 399, 439–40, 443–50.