Friday, October 28, 2011

How the Potato Changed the World

One of the greatest effects of the reconnection of the Americas to the known world (the Columbian Exchange), "...the potato’s arrival in northern Europe spelled an end to famine there...The potato, in other words, fueled the rise of the West."

"Equally important, the European and North American adoption of the potato set the template for modern agriculture... brought the world’s first intensive fertilizer... the first artificial pesticide...and set off a political argument about the food supply that grows more intense by the day."

No comments:

Post a Comment