Week 4 & 5 Notes - Corn
● Viceroy Don franciso (spanish soldier) said that two things that pursue of substance &
richness was cow and cattle.
Three Sisters - Maize, Beans & Squash:
● Corn is an indigenous plant of the Americas
● These three crops can be planted on the same plot of land; they are companion plants
meaning they do well together when planted.
○ Comes from indigenous knowledge
● Also good for the Earth because it provides the Earth with nutrients (within the soil).
How It is Prepared:
● Mixing corn with lime (the mineral; not the fruit); lime is an alkaline substance.
● Crushing it using the metate to make masa dough
● This process is down to preserve the nutrients and prevent disease
● Nixtimilization is a process discovered by the Aztec and Maya civilizations with transformed
maize into superior food stuff.
○ It starts with soaking ripe maize grains and cooking them with lime; This enables the
transparent skin on the grain to be removed and maines grain easier to grind.
○ But the major contributor of nixtim is that is enhances the protein value for humans
● However, eating it on its own is not enough; thus the indigenous knowledge says beans &
squash have the proteins to eat with to make it a complete food.
Corn in the New World:
● Three civilizations of mesoamerica: aztec, mayan and Inca
○ Now known as latin america/south america
● This knowledge of nixtimilization was practiced by women and this type of cultural
knowledge was not acknowged by colonizers.
Corn when it Left the New World:
● The Europeans accepted maize but instead rhey made into mush or bread; they ignored nix,
probably thinking it unnecessary with their powerful and efficient mills.
● Because of this, maize dependent cultures away from the New world suffer dietary
deficiences like pellagra, which do not exist where nix is ueed.
● Nor did the Europeans take back home with then the nutritionally superior combination of
maize and New world beans, although the ingredients made the trip separately.
● Cheap & easy to grow; used as a staple for communities where wheat and rice where
expensive and not abundant;
● Corn filled the stomach but was not nutritious; this knowledge was disregarded
● Beans are cheap, nutritious and the perfect accompaniment to corn
● Eg. in Africa; corn dish + various forms of beans; meat was a form or protein was expensive
and rare until the modern world and we had the ability to refrigerate.
● Italy (reached post 1494) - la cucina povera
○ Polenta is an italian corn dish and was food for the peasants
○ They couldnt afford to eat other forms of protein thus pellegra was a common disease
○ People had enough to eat because it was easy & cheap to grow but empty calories.
● Then planted in spain, portugal, italy & turkey
● Then reached other parts of europe & asia
○ Maize reaches philippines via spanish colonist
● By 1555 maize planted in hunan (china), via trade routh with philippines.
● Africa: corn was mainly made into porridge dishes
○ Boiled into porridge; not nixtimalized
○ Unlike in North america where corn is roasted, fried or popped as snacks
Corn Back in the New World:
● Forms of maize as grits for US slaves; important part of current american south culture &
african culture.
● Slaves had to be fed cheaply on plantations.
These non nixtimilized versions of corn were forms of cornmeal mush/porridge.
Children of Corn Reading:
● Main focus on womens labours & ingenuity in preparing corn
● Dishes include tortillas & tamales
● Spanish influenced elites intially disdained humble maize dishes for wheat
● But now national cuisine for mexico seen as corn and beans based
● Corn is what sustained them but is also the foundation of their culture
Important Roles Today
● Animal feed
● Human food
● Sweetener
● Energy source (ethanol) & industrial ingredient
Week 6 Notes - Potato
● Food security;
● Few foods available during times of famine and still associated with signs of poverty.
● Potato pride from above (north korea) and below (china)
● The potatoes is now associated with industrial-scale monoculture, the international potato
center in Peru has preserved almost 5000 varieties.
○ Andes mountains; Andean people
○ The Incas civilization
○ Founded on the food security of potatoes
● But the potatoes spread elsewhere
○ Himalayas
○ Women farmers who cultivate the potatoes
○ Sloping areas
○ Forgiving plant because it can grow in different types of soil and climates
● Russian empire
○ 1910
○ Extreme climate but still potatoes were able to grow
○ Russian monks cultivating them
○ Food security
● Ireland
○ 1820
○ Irish culture and history is quite synonymous with the potato
○ Poor society; first colonized space of the british empire
○ Potato was central to food security here
● Hebei, China
○ 2019
○ Chinese govt encourage farmers to grow potatoes
○ Large scale potato farms exist
● 1400 species of potatoes
● Potato remains found in prehistoric areas of what is today: Chile, Bolivia, Peru and Columbia
● 200 species of wild potatoes in South America. Selection and natural interbreeding by
generations of peasants as many wild varieties are inedible or unsafe to eat; high glycoliloud
content.
● Almost all marketed potatoes belond to one species form which a few variteites are grown, in
the Andes more than 5000 varietes are cultivated, adapted to different terrains and altitudes.
● Unfortunately many of these varieties and their wild relatives are now being lost due mainly
to climate change.
● Oxford Reference:
○ The vast majority of cultivated potatoes are grown for human consumption
○ Also an important source of starch used in food industry as thickener
○ Production of alcoholic drinks such as vodka and spirits
○ Role in the pharmaceuticals and textile industries
○ In traditional medicine, the potato is used in treatment of ulcers, burns and rashes.
■ Especially in the Americas
● Chunno
○ Innovation of chunno that enabled food security for the Inca Empire (1400-1520s, CE)
○ Farmers in Andes mountains + succeeding Spanish colonists (1530s)
○ Second place was Northern Europe
● What is Chunno?
○ Potatoes rot quickly; need a mechanism to preserve
○ But in the cold Andes mountains, peasants buried them underground
○ Thus, they invented an essential “freeze-dried” source of nutrition
○ Chunnos huge economic & nutritional importance
■ Both for the Inca and Spanish colonists
○ But it was humble South American peasants & farmers who pre-dated the incase who
has “invented” this food.
○ Thus, allowed this civilization to be sustained in this extreme climate
○ When the colonists came, Chunno sustained the first generations of the Spanish
colonists.
● From South America, we move to Europe
○ Armies need to be fed and often armies would feed off the people they encountered.
■ Soldiers has to feed yourself so they resort to invading homes and people for
food
■ But peasants discovered that Napoleans armies were coming but the potatoes
were buried underground (not visible) so it became their insurance.
■ To protect themselves against the armies
■ In Spain where napoleans armies would ravage villages; they would take the
villages grains and other food.
○ Potatoes were being opposed onto people as a source of food.
● Europes Ruler, Peasants and Potatoes
○ European rulers thought potatoes were a common food and only for animals and
common people.
○ Attempted to get peasants to grow and eat them instead of wheat which they could
save for the elites
○ Peasents initially suspicious of the new potato
○ But gradually they realized the advantages of potato (especially during war)
● Ireland & Potato:
○ 1845-1851; great potato famine
○ But what came before this?
■ Ireland colonized by Britain in the 17th century
■ Its intentional was to replace Catholic Irish peasant with its own soldiers but
this did not happen. Few irish elites were mainly protestant as well.
■ But irish peasents were subject to Englands protestant landlords
■ Those landlords focused on beef and grain and grain as profitable commercial
commodities to sell.
● Turned into salt beef; preserved to make meat cheaper; wealthy people
werent interested but important commodity for exportation that
produced money for Britian; taken to plantations in the Carribean for
slaves.
● But wheat was the most desirable grain
■ But they also wanted cheap labour
■ The cheapest labour was available via the Irish peasants who had taken to
living on a simple diet of potatoes and milk
● Can’t eat most of the wheat they grow; money they make used for
taxes and rent to the landlords.
■ This was far cheaper that what English counterparts ate, breaks & cheese
■ But trouble arose when the potato plants faces a dread disease.
○ Phytophthora infestans
■ Potato blight (affects tomatoes too)
■ Worse in cool, rainy weather as affected Ireland from 1845
■ Destroyed over 60% of potato crop
■ Impact on people made worse by British state refusal to bring in cheap food
supplies of grain (which was heavily taxed) or increase food relief such as soup
kitchens or provide tax concessions.
■ By 1852, the potato famine caused deaths of over a million Irish
■ Caused over a million to emigrate in search of a living
■ Led to decades of Irish resistance to British state.
● Potato & Asian State
○ Potato was used by British Empire as state empire but it doesnt mean that people
were forced to eat it.
○ Potato spreads very widely
○ In the parts of South Asia, where there were already lots of vegetables growing, they
were adopted as vegetables, not a staple
■ Focused on wheat and rice as stale
■ Not become a main grain
■ Slowly spread
○ In certain area where the ecology didnt allow for the cultivation (eg. mountains) of
wheat and rice
■ Eg. himalayas
■ Thus, potato becomes a very important food/staple
■ Became very popular; very fast spread
○ In east asia like china
■ People were facing lots of food insecurity so potato becomes a well accepted
parts of society.
○ North Korean
■ Most controlled authoritarian state
■ Deprives its people of contact from the outside world
■ Serious hunger problem thus potato pride is a measure of state control from
above; pushing farmers to grow potatoes to feed people and the potato pride
song; (we grow lots og potatoes, and our people are fine); propaganda.
Week 10 Notes - Rice
● Descended from a wild Himilayen plant; over 100,000 land races evolved.
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