Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- INTRODUCTION: FROM FORAGING TO FARMING
- Ch. 1 LAST HUNTERS, FIRST FARMERS
- Ch. 2 BUILDING THE BARNYARD
- Ch. 3 PROMISCUOUS PLANTS OF THE NORTHERN FERTILE CRESCENT
- Ch. 4 PERIPATETIC PLANTS OF EASTERN ASIA
- Ch. 5 FECUND FRINGES OF THE NORTHERN FERTILE CRESCENT
- Ch. 6 CONSEQUENCES OF THE NEOLITHIC
- Ch. 7 ENTERPRISE AND EMPIRES
- Ch. 8 FAITH AND FOODSTUFFS
- Ch. 9 EMPIRES IN THE RUBBLE OF ROME
- Ch. 10 MEDIEVAL PROGRESS AND POVERTY
- Ch. 11 SPAIN'S NEW WORLD, THE NORTHERN HEMISPHERE
- Ch. 12 NEW WORLD, NEW FOODS
- Ch. 13 NEW FOODS IN THE SOUTHERN NEW WORLD
- Ch. 14 THE COLUMBIAN EXCHANGE AND THE OLD WORLDS
- Ch. 15 THE COLUMBIAN EXCHANGE AND NEW WORLDS
- Ch. 16 SUGAR AND NEW BEVERAGES
- Ch. 17 KITCHEN HISPANIZATION
- Ch. 18 PRODUCING PLENTY IN PARADISE
- Ch. 19 THE FRONTIERS OF FOREIGN FOODS
- Ch. 20 CAPITALISM, COLONIALISM, AND CUISINE
- Ch. 21 HOMEMADE FOOD HOMOGENEITY
- Ch. 22 NOTIONS OF NUTRIENTS AND NUTRIMENTS
- Ch. 23 THE PERILS OF PLENTY
- Ch. 24 THE GLOBALIZATION OF PLENTY
- Ch. 25 FAST FOOD, A HYMN TO CELLULITE
- Ch. 26 PARLOUS PLENTY INTO THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY
- Ch. 27 PEOPLE AND PLENTY IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY
- Notes
- Index
Ch. 18 - PRODUCING PLENTY IN PARADISE
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 August 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- INTRODUCTION: FROM FORAGING TO FARMING
- Ch. 1 LAST HUNTERS, FIRST FARMERS
- Ch. 2 BUILDING THE BARNYARD
- Ch. 3 PROMISCUOUS PLANTS OF THE NORTHERN FERTILE CRESCENT
- Ch. 4 PERIPATETIC PLANTS OF EASTERN ASIA
- Ch. 5 FECUND FRINGES OF THE NORTHERN FERTILE CRESCENT
- Ch. 6 CONSEQUENCES OF THE NEOLITHIC
- Ch. 7 ENTERPRISE AND EMPIRES
- Ch. 8 FAITH AND FOODSTUFFS
- Ch. 9 EMPIRES IN THE RUBBLE OF ROME
- Ch. 10 MEDIEVAL PROGRESS AND POVERTY
- Ch. 11 SPAIN'S NEW WORLD, THE NORTHERN HEMISPHERE
- Ch. 12 NEW WORLD, NEW FOODS
- Ch. 13 NEW FOODS IN THE SOUTHERN NEW WORLD
- Ch. 14 THE COLUMBIAN EXCHANGE AND THE OLD WORLDS
- Ch. 15 THE COLUMBIAN EXCHANGE AND NEW WORLDS
- Ch. 16 SUGAR AND NEW BEVERAGES
- Ch. 17 KITCHEN HISPANIZATION
- Ch. 18 PRODUCING PLENTY IN PARADISE
- Ch. 19 THE FRONTIERS OF FOREIGN FOODS
- Ch. 20 CAPITALISM, COLONIALISM, AND CUISINE
- Ch. 21 HOMEMADE FOOD HOMOGENEITY
- Ch. 22 NOTIONS OF NUTRIENTS AND NUTRIMENTS
- Ch. 23 THE PERILS OF PLENTY
- Ch. 24 THE GLOBALIZATION OF PLENTY
- Ch. 25 FAST FOOD, A HYMN TO CELLULITE
- Ch. 26 PARLOUS PLENTY INTO THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY
- Ch. 27 PEOPLE AND PLENTY IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY
- Notes
- Index
Summary
Earth here is so kind, that just tickle her with a hoe and she laughs with a harvest.
Douglas Jerrold (1803–1857)THE FIRST EUROPEANS to settle in North America survived on Native American staples until Old World favorites began to thrive. As Alfred Crosby has shown, practically all Old World plants, animals, and humans did well in regions with climates similar to those of Europe (he termed them “neo-Europes”) by shoving aside more fragile competitors, when there were any competitors at all.
However such “Ecological Imperialism” managed only a faltering start in Florida, and sixteenth-century Spanish soldiers and missionaries had to fill their stomachs mostly with native maize, squash, and beans along with sweet potatoes transplanted from the West Indies. Bitter oranges had been planted by early explorers and by the end of the sixteenth century sweet oranges were growing, although no commercial possibilities were foreseen until the English took Florida in 1763 and, in 1776, began shipping St. Augustine's oranges back to England. Sugarcane was also placed under cultivation but, as a rule, where sugarcane will grow, wheat will not, and wheat flour was always an import to Spanish Florida.
Old World plant vigor, however, was exhibited by peach trees introduced directly from Europe that raced across the American continent well in advance of the Europeans. Native Americans became fond of the fruits, and, by the time of the American Revolution, peaches were so well established that many assumed them to be American natives.
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- A Movable FeastTen Millennia of Food Globalization, pp. 191 - 201Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2007