Comments on: Is 1492 a/the crucial turning point in food history?

By: Adam Balic

Adam Balic — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 19:44:39 +0000

Not sure that you can compare a hypothetical single event in Crete with the transformation of the food in Asia, Africa and Europe within a 150 years. The first European description of the flora of China has pineapples in it, which is trivia compared to maize, potatoes, cassava, and New World beans and taro. I guess one way to assess the impact of this exchange is to look at the rate of population growth figures after the introduction of New World carbohydrates.

Pork is nice, but the important part of the pig is the fat. Fat is energy, fat is a way of storing food and with fat you can fry things and change the texure of foods. Pre-Columbian tamale must have quite different to what is made now.

By: Rachel Laudan

Rachel Laudan — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 15:34:17 +0000

Not sure the rate in the Old World wasn’t sometimes pretty fast. To take an early example, if ships sail to Crete in 7000 BC with a complete package of grains and breeding pairs of animals, that’s a pretty quick and dramatic change to island ecology etc though of course the diet for the migrants remains the same.

Not sure what you mean by the impact of the pigs. Ecological? Gastronomical? Nutritional?

By: Rachel Laudan

Rachel Laudan — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 15:31:09 +0000

Yes, it’s amazing how long that takes to sink in.

By: Jeremy

Jeremy — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 08:48:38 +0000

Good points, well made. In the public awareness sphere, though, it helps to be able to say to an Italian, for example, that all those ingredients that they think typical have been around only 500 years.

By: Adam Balic

Adam Balic — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 01:38:14 +0000

How important do you think that the rate of the exchange is? A couple of decades to centuries (maize, New World beans, potato) looks pretty quick compared to thousands of years for migration wheat, barley etc. Not to mention the impact of pigs et al going to the New World.

By: Rachel Laudan

Rachel Laudan — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 21:24:19 +0000

Yes, absolutely. I spent a decade in Hawaii and it was hard to miss the sweet potato.

By: Joseph Tychonievich

Joseph Tychonievich — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 16:03:15 +0000

Don’t forget my favorite pre-written history food travel: The sweet potato somehow made it from South America all the way across the Pacific to Polynesia!