Staple to superfood : a global history of the sweet potato /
"Food crops from the Americas, such as corn, potatoes, cassava, and peanuts, are widely acknowledged to have significantly improved the world's food supply. But few know that the potatoes Christopher Columbus brought back to Europe weren't white or Irish potatoes, but rather sweet pot...
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| Format: | eBook |
| Language: | English |
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New York, NY :
Columbia University Press,
[2025]
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| Series: | Columbia studies in international and global history
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| Subjects: |
| Summary: | "Food crops from the Americas, such as corn, potatoes, cassava, and peanuts, are widely acknowledged to have significantly improved the world's food supply. But few know that the potatoes Christopher Columbus brought back to Europe weren't white or Irish potatoes, but rather sweet potatoes. Despite being considered a sweet ingredient and even an aphrodisiac on a par with chocolate in early modern Europe, sweet potatoes have been grown as an insurance crop or as "poor person's food" in Asia, Africa, and Oceania for centuries. In Southeast Asia and Africa, where the root is a staple food, it has also been dubbed a "women's crop." As the first global history of this American plant, this book explores and analyzes the sweet potato's diverse receptions and myriad influences in shaping world history. Like their botanically unrelated "cousin," the white potato, which expanded the population in modern Europe, sweet potatoes, an equally fast-growing and high-yielding food plant, significantly supported population growth in revolutionary China and wartime Japan. The root's significance is also reflected in the complex ways in which history and identity have developed in islands as diverse as Taiwan, Okinawa, Papua New Guinea, and Hawaiʻi. In more recent years, while still a valuable player for global food security, the sweet potato has gained a new reputation as a "superfood" due to its numerous health advantages. The globalization of sweet potatoes as a food provides a fresh perspective on the varied paths that the modern world's development has taken"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Physical Description: | pages cm. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| ISBN: | 9780231561709 (electronic bk.) 0231561709 (electronic bk.) |