MORE ON THE IMPORTANCE OF THE POTATO.

MORE ON THE HISTORY OF THE POTATO. The Smithsonian Magazine (November 2011) has an article on the potato adapted from Charles C. Mann’s book 1493: UNCOVERING THE NEW WORLD COLUMBUS CREATED. I posted several times in defense of the nourishment provided by potatoes, including this post on Professor Mcneill’s conclusion that: “by feeding rapidly growing populations, [potatoes] permitted a handful of European nations to assert dominion over most of the world between 1750 and 1950.” Mann points out that, according to Fernand Braudel,— Kids, Braudel is a wonderful historian— France had 40 nationwide famines between 1500 and 1800. Brauedl added that this figure “omits the hundreds and hundreds of local famines.” Mann says that the the effect of potatoes in terms of calories was to double Europe’s food supply. “Routine famine almost disappeared in potato country”, which stretched from Ireland to the Ural Mountains.