Introduction Looking at agriculture, fruits and vegetables, one of main vegetables that are great to humankind, is potatoes. Potato’s play an important role in the world, not by just giving nutrients to human bodies. For example some scientists have a theory of using potatoes to survive on planet Mars in the future (Reader, 2009). Yet not many people know about how the potato affected many countries and where did the potato started to grow. Knowing the basics and history of potatoes can really influence the thought of when someone is eating a French fried potato. Going back to its history, the potato first settled in southern Peru, then causing the destruction the Irish Potato Famine, and potentially ending in future in another planet. …show more content…
During this time Irish farmers would plant potatoes but one day the potatoes started to turn black and grow purple flowers on it and get rotten. Several months passed repeating the same results, but farmers could not find what was wrong. Many of these families depend on potatoes to live. They use potatoes for breakfast, lunch and dinner, they made potato soup, potato salad, potato everything. Many of the farmers thought the “fairies” were to cause this because they remember when it all started when it was dark skies and they thought the fairies were bad and made all the potatoes black (Bartoletti 2001). But it is believed that a man named, Sir Walter Raleigh brought the tuber to the island from the New World around 1570, and no one can for told after 275 that a disaster would happen (History.com, n.d.). Many families suffered, over 1 million of the Irish died because of this disease and over 2 million fled from their hometowns, and most immigrated to America (History.com, n.d.). Many terrible things happen to the Irish at the time and yet so many heroic people came to help and some die
Before 1500, potatoes were not become outside of South America. By the 1840s, Ireland was so subject to the potato that the proximate reason for the Incomparable Starvation was a potato malady. Potatoes in the long run turned into an imperative staple of the eating regimen in quite a bit of Europe. Numerous European rulers, including Frederick the Incomparable of Prussia and Catherine the Incomparable of Russia, supported the development of the potato. Maize and cassava, acquainted with the Portuguese from South America in the sixteenth century, have supplanted sorghum and millet as Africa's most essential sustenance crops. sixteenth century Spanish colonizers acquainted new staple yields with Asia from the Americas, including maize and sweet potatoes, and along these lines added to populace development in Asia. Tomatoes, which came to Europe from the New World by means of Spain, were at first prized in Italy basically for their decorative esteem . From the nineteenth century tomato sauces wound up run of the mill of Neapolitan food and, eventually, Italian cooking when all is said in done. Espresso from Africa and the Center East and sugarcane from the Spanish West Independents turned into the fundamental fare product harvests of broad Latin American manors. Acquainted with India by the Portuguese, bean stew and potatoes from South America have turned into a basic piece of Indian
During the 17th century the growing of potatoes was greatly encouraged in order to replace expensive imported grains as the staple food of the peasantry. However in Ireland the policy had disastrous consequences because crop failure from 1845 – 52 as a result of potato blight caused the death of millions during the Great
As conditions worsened at the mills with wage cuts and longer hours the women began to go on strikes. The first strike (the strike of 1834) was to prevent a wage cut but Unfortunately for the mill girls the strike failed and they returned to work days later. The second strike (the strike of 1836) was to prevent a rent hike and this time the mill girls were successful. Getting tired of the women workers demands for more pay and better working environment the factory owners began to hire poor Irish immigrants who were flooding into America to escape the “Irish potato blight”. The Irish men and women were willing to work for low wages and were much more compliant to the demands of the
The potato also reminds him of his mother’s stories, and the different in cultures between America and Peru. “Are potatoes harvested at night in the moonlight? He was surprised how little he knew about something that came from his own country. As he thought about it, he believed harvest wasn’t even the correct term. Gathering? Digging? What do you call this harvest from under the earth?” (Pg 313, Ortega) The father is trying to remember how potatoes are harvested, and it surprised him that how little he actually knew about them. It shows that the lost of his old culture when he lives in Peru and he is a bite guilty and astonish that he doesn’t know this simply and base facts about his culture. “Boiled, baked, fried, or stewed: the ways of cooking potatoes were a long story in themselves. He remembered what his mother had told him as a child: at harvest time, the largest potatoes would be roasted for everybody, and, in the fire, they would open up just like flowers. The potatoes were probably the one of the lost varieties, the kind that turned into flowers in the flames.” (Pg 313, Ortega)The culture of Peru is reflected through the symbol potato. The father think about the time when he was a child and his mother told him stories about his culture and how different ways the potatoes were cooked in the past. So when the father cooks the potato it reminds him of the culture of peru and all the different ways that people there cooks
More than a million Irish people died during The Irish Potato famine that hit Ireland between 1845 to 1849 (Pollard, pg. 551). Potatoes were the primary diet of the Irish, especially the Irish Lump potato. When the fungal disease hit, known as “potato blight,” the Irish potato crops were lost. After reading primary sources regarding the Irish Potato Famine, the reader can visualize the horrors that the Irish people endured during the Irish Potatoes Famine including starvation, the physical and the mental effects that go along with it, the loss of family members, and especially witnessing their children starve and die. Both Trench and Bennet had the purpose and intent of recording conditions
The potato is highly nutritious, providing forty-five percent of a person’s Vitamin C needs, which was hard to come by in diets of the time. Being starchy, it provided many two to four times more calories than the Old World grains like oat, wheat, and barley per acre of farmland (McNeill, 1999). The potato was also an ergot-free alternative to rye, which if ingested, led to psychosis, death and reduced birth rates (Matossian, 1989). While requiring more labour to dig up the tubers from below the ground, the potato more than made up for it by being easier to prepare (no need for threshing), and by doubling Europe’s food supply (Mann, 2011).
While numerous sources debate if growing potatoes on Mars using the methods Watney executed, these source miss the symbolic realism and meaning behind using potatoes in the movie. For example, Watney finds the potatoes in a box labeled strictly intended for research use, which ties to the emphasis on current potato research in space. Watney does not know if growing potatoes is a feasible way of survival, and therefore must use science and his background in botany to make the potatoes grow. Watney realistically designs and carriers out a scientific experiment in a process that actual scientist will explore the possibilities of growing potatoes on Mars. Furthermore, Chinese scientists willingly fund the research and development to help the United States send a space probe filled with food to Watney. This connection strikes as a realistic reference to when the first potatoes intended for space were developed. The Chinese developed the basis for the first space potatoes, and the United States further advanced the Chinese potatoes in order to send the potatoes into space. Similarly, the United States first started to develop the food space probe, and the Chinese further aided in development to successfully rescue Watney from Mars. Both of these instances provide a significant value of realism to the potatoes shown on
The Inca Indians were the first people to cultivate potatoes in Peru between 8,000 and 5,000 B.C. The Inca people considered the potato sacred; they worshipped them and even buried them with the dead. They always kept a backup supply incase of war or famine. It wasn’t until the year 1536 that the crop began to spread beyond Peru. The Spanish Conquistadors took over Peru around this time; they originally were in search of gold but found something almost more valuable, the potato. They ended up taking the potatoes and transporting them to Europe. According to researchers it’s believed that the introduction of the potato helped put an end to the famine in Northern Europe that was going on at the time. The potato’s were brought to Spain in 1570 but were mostly used to feed livestock. Once the potatoes were
The potato could be served baked, boiled, roasted, fried or made into soups, pancakes, dumplings, souffles, pies and even bread! The potato adapted easily to the cool and damp climates of Ireland, Germany, Poland, Russia, Scotland, England, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Scandinavia. And now approximately 3,000 different types of potatoes are grown in America today! In fact, the potato affected Ireland so much that the population expanded from 3.2 million in 1754 to 8.2 million less than a century later. Now China has become the largest sweet potato producer ever, the potato went national faster than Justin
In the early 1800s life in Ireland wasn’t easy, Irish citizens got by day to day by farming and relying on the potato. The potato was their main source of food and money. With out the potato the Irish would have nothing. No one was prepared for what was about to happen in 1845, the beginning of the Great Irish Potato Famine.
Potatoes around the world are affected by the pressing issue, of gangs of cannibal potatoes. Theses gangs are making their new recruits eat french fries. These french fries could be there family. These potatoes are eating their own, and they enjoy it. In New York, there was a potato gang who raided a McDonalds and stole all the french fries. They were found in a factory, but all the french fries were gone. These rabid potatoes ate all the french fries. The potatoes were taken into custody, and charged with cannibalism. One of the potatoes, who would like to remain anonymous, said in there testimony, ¨Until you eat french fries, it seems cruel. But here's the thing, these potatoes are already dead. Humans were already going to eat them
The actions of the competing European nations lead to a great discovery. The Indians of the Andes changed the world with their cultivation of the potato. The potato came from a tuberous solanum. During this period, the ancient Peruvians had had a history of great experiments with agriculture. These people produced many yields of potatoes. The farmers form the Andes were already producing about three thousand different types of potatoes. Unlike silver, potatoes had a positive impact on the world's economy. Potatoes were making their way across the world. In Flanders, which is located in Europe, potatoes replaced forty percent of the cereal that was consumed. This caused nutrition and population to grow around the world. Ireland was the first
Between 1701 and 1800, The United States was able to grow up potatoes by Irish who immigrated from New England. They came to United States with potatoes and spread all over the nations.That time American people slowly accepted the "Irish potato". They could cultivate large farms of potatoes from the 19th century.
The potato is one of history’s most important vegetables, although initially reluctant Europeans quickly became dependent on the plant. Most of the educated class saw the potato’s potential and raised it in their gardens before the more superstitious lower classes. The lower classes feared the myths of “night shades and plagues” and the encouragement from God was the only sign to begin growing potatoes (Zuckerman 49). Some farmers believed this crop to be an aphrodisiac, others saw it as the cause of fever and leprosy. In meat-loving England, urban workers and considered potatoes to have an extreme distaste. The critic, Denis Diderot wrote in his Encyclopédie in 1765 his stance on the potato. He stated that “it wasn’t a pleasant food, though abundant, and adequately nourished those who didn’t care about anything except sustenance” (Zuckerman 73). The Europeans had strong opinions about the potato and it would have to take a lot of convincing to change their minds. The European government knew the potato could develop and effect the economy in a positive way, they only needed to find a way to encourage the lower classes to grow the vegetable.
The potato greatly affected diets, agriculture, public health, and ecology in Europe and the Americas. Potatoes produced in the wild contain dangerous toxins such as solanine and tomatine. (Mann) In some locations, wild llamas would lick clay before eating a poisonous plant. (Mann) The poisons would adhere to the clay allowing animals to consume these plants without being harmed. (Mann) Humans began doing this too. The Andean Indians began preparing potatoes different ways. For example, they were boiled, mashed, chopped, peeled and baked. (Mann) The potato also expanded the aspect of agriculture. Potatoes taste different based on the type planted. Many villages grew different types of potatoes for a variety of tastes. (Mann) Hunger was very common in Europe in the 17th and 18th century. (Mann) Since the potato crop could be grow in abundance, it was a great solution hunger. The potato was such an important asset many regions that citizens tried harder to get the potato to succeed. This caused the development of new agricultural advances. For example, they began spreading “Guano, the dried remains of birds’ semisolid urine” over the plants to provide them with nitrogen. The guano was considered a great plant fertilizer. (Mann) In addition, the potato also led to the creation of plant pesticides. In the 1940’s and 1950’s, was the Green Revolution. (Mann) This was all because of the potato. Potatoes had begun to fall ill when the Colorado potato beetle, attacked farmer’s