INDEX

INDEX

Abu Hureyra (Syria), 20

Africa. See also specific countries

circumnavigation of, 91–93

green revolution in, 236

hunter-gatherers, 33–36

slaves from, 114–15

spread of Islam, 77

agricultural productivity. See also green revolution

application of nitrogen and, 202–6

cereal crop mutation and selection, 9–11

dwarf crop varieties and, 213–20

and the emergence of strong leaders, 41–44

and fall of the Soviet Union, 188–92

and industrialization, 221–22

maize mutation and selection, 5–9

Malthusian trap, 226–29

Stalin’s collective farms and, 177–82

agriculture

conservation tillage, 236–37

creation myths and, 13–15

disadvantages of switch from hunter-gatherer lifestyle to farming, 16–19

environmental impact of, 27

extent of wheat, rice, and maize farming,

and inequality, 55–56

interdependence of crops and humans, 25–27

loss of association with the land, 57–59

organic farming, 237

origins of, 19–22

spread of farming and farmers, 22–25

as technology, 26–27

Ailly, Pierre d’, 86

al-Biruni. See Biruni, al-

Alexander the Great, 146–48

Alexandria Tariff, 65

allspice, 90

American Civil War, 163–68

American Revolutionary War, 149–51

ammonia synthesis, 206–12

Anatolians, 24

animal domestication, 25

Appert, Nicolas, 163

Arab traders, See also Islam

The Art of Preserving All Kinds of Animal and Vegetable Substances for Several Years (Appert), 161

Austerlitz, battle of, 154–55

Australian aborigines, 19

52

Aztecs

creation myths, 13

landholding groups, 52

and maize, 8

sacrifices, 54–55

tribute collection, 53

Balsas teosinte, 7–8

Banda islands, 100

Bangladesh, green revolution in, 229

Barras, Paul, 152

BASF, 212

Basques, 24

Beg, Jani. See Jani Beg

Belov, Fedor, 181

Berlin airlift, 171–77

Berthelot, Marcelin, 202

big-man cultures, 38–41

biofuels, 140–42

Biruni, al-, 77

Black Death (bubonic plague), 80–82

black pepper, 71

Boccaccio, Giovanni, 82

The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night (translated by Sir Richard Burton), 63

Borlaug, Norman, 234

Bosch, Carl, 210–12

botanical gardens, 109–10

botany, 107–12

Boussingault, Jean-Baptiste, 201–2

Bové, José, 194

Boyle, Robert, 159

Bradley, Omar, 172

Brazil, 95

Brevor, 216

Brillat-Savarin, Jean-Anthelme, vii

bubonic plague (Black Death), 80–82

Bushmen, 34–36

Buzurg ibn Shahriyar, 78

Cabral, Pedro Alvarez, 95

Caffa (Crimean peninsula), 82

52

canned food, 159–63

capitalism versus communism, Berlin airlift, 171–77

Capron, Horace, 213–14

carbon footprint, 103

cardamom, 71

Casas, Bartolomé de las, 90

cassia, 63

Catherine the Great of Russia, 120–21

Cato the Elder, 203

cattle, 11

Center for Global Development, 240

Chanca, Diego Álvarez, 89

Charles II, king of England, 112

chemical weapons, 212

chickens, 11

chiefdoms, 41–44

chile, 90

Chile, sodium nitrate deposits, 204–5

China

early social stratification in, 46

green revolution in, 233

Hupei basin grave goods, 38–39

maize, sweet potatoes, and population growth, 124

Mao’s Great Leap Forward, 182–88

migration of farmers to Japan, 23

rice myths, 14

sacrifices in Shang China, 55

and spice trade, 77–78

taxes paid with labor in Shang China, 51

Zheng He and the treasure ship armada, 84

cinnamon, 71

civilization, early

food and the evolution of, 41–47

food as currency in, 50–53

Inca maize-related customs, 48–50

payment of sacrifices and offerings, 53–56

Civil War. See American Civil War

Clay, Lucius D., 173

climate change, 240

Cline, William, 240

cloves, 99–100

Clusius, 119

coal, 140

The Coal Question (Jevons), 140

Colbert, Charles, 108

Cold War, 171

colonialism, 109–12

Columbian Exchange, 124

Columbus, Christopher, 112–14

Columella, 203

communism

Berlin airlift, 171–77

fall of the Soviet Union, 188–92

Mao’s Great Leap Forward, 182–88

primitive, 37

Stalin’s use of famine, 177–82

conservation agriculture (conservation tillage), 236–37

cookbooks, 73

corn. See maize

corn ethanol, 140–42

Corn Laws, 137–38

Cortés, Hernán, 90

corvée work/workers, 52

creation myths, 13–15

Crompton, Samuel, 133

Crookes, William, 205–6

crop rotation, 125

Crosby, Alfred, 112

Cuba, 112

cultural diffusion, 23

currency, food as, 50–53

Darwin, Charles, 3

Davis, Jefferson, 168

dead zones, 230

decomposition process, 161

demic diffusion, 23

democracy and famines, 192–93

demographic transition, 227–29

Deng Xiaoping, 225

Dias, Bartholomeu, 91–92

domestication, See also specific crops

Donkin, Bryan, 161–63

Douglas aircraft, 176

Drake, Francis, 98–99

Durand, Peter, 161

Dutch botanical gardens, 109

Dutch merchants, 101

Dutch sugar production, 114

dwarf crop varieties, 230

Eden, Frederick, 122–23

Egypt

competition for agricultural land, 43

food as tax and rent, 50–51

sacrifices, 55

signs of social stratification, 47

and spice trade, 68–69

Elcano, Juan Sebastian, 98

England

age of exploration, 107–8

and ammonia synthesis, 212

botanical gardens and economic botany, 108–9

food production and population growth, 125–26

industrialization, 131–33

logistics of American Revolutionary War, 149–51

and potatoes, 122–23

reliance on imported food, 137–39

sugar boycott, 195

sugar production, 114

use of canned foods, 161–63

environment

green revolution and, 200–201

impact of agriculture on, 27

industrialization and, 139–40

Eskimo groups (Alaska), 40

An Essay on the Principle of Population (Malthus), 126–28

ethanol, 140–42

Eudoxus, 68–69

Europe. See also specific countries

age of exploration, 84

maize, potatoes, and population growth, 124–25

spread of farming in, 24–25

fair-trade products, 194

Famine—1975! (Paddock and Paddock), 217–18

famines

democracy and, 192

Irish potato famine, 135–37

Mao’s Great Leap Forward, 182–88

Stalin’s political use of, 177–82

use of potatoes during, 120–21

farming. See agriculture

food crisis, 233–35

food miles, 102–3

food preservation, 159–63

food prices, 233–35

foraging, armies living off the land, 166–67

Forster, William, 136

fossil fuels, 131–33

France

food activism, 194

and food preservation methods, 162

loss of connection to land, 57–58

Napoleon Bonaparte’s minimalist approach to logistics, 151–58

sugar production, 114

use of potatoes in, 120–22

frankincense, 71

Frederick the Great of Prussia, 120–21

Gaidar, Yegor, 190

Gama, Vasco da, 95–96

Gaud, William, 219

Genoese traders, 82

geography and trade, 75–77

Gerard, John, 119–20

Germany

and ammonia synthesis, 205–12

Berlin airlift, 171–77

ginger, 67

glass-making industry, 132

glumes, 5

goats, 11

Golden Horde, 80–81

Gorbachev, Mikhail, 190

Grant, Ulysses S., 164

grave goods, 44–45

Great Exhibition (London, 1851), 162–63

Great Leap Forward, 182–88

Greece

colonization of, by farmers, 23

health of hunter-gatherers versus farmers, 18

green revolution

ammonia synthesis and, 201

in Asia, 221–26

and current food crisis, 233–35

dwarf crop varieties and, 213–20

environmental costs of, 230–33

need for second green revolution, 235–37

and population growth, 226–29

use of term, 219

Grossman, Vasily, 179

Guano Islands Act (1856), 204

Guibert, Comte de, 152–53

Haber, Fritz, 206–12

Haber-Bosch process, 220

Halvorsen, Gail, 174–75

Hannibal, 148–49

Harlan, Jack, 241

Hatayevich, Comrade, 181

Hawaii, 43

48

Hazda nomads (Tanzania), 16

Hekanakhte Papers, 50–51

Hellriegel, Hermann, 202

Henry the Navigator, prince of Portugal, 91

Herball (Gerard), 119–20

Herodotus, 63–64

high-yield crop varieties, 230

Hippalos, 69

Hispaniola, 114

Howley, Frank, 173

hunter-gatherers

coexistence with farmers, 23–24

as egalitarians, 33–37

gradual shift to farming, 21

idealization of, 37

lifestyle advantages of, 16–19

and sedentism, 20–21

Hu Yaobang, 187

Ibn Battuta, 79

Immerwahr, Clara, 212

imported food

industrialization and, 133–39

versus local food, 102–4

Incas

clan fields, 51–52

creation myths, 13–14

maize-related customs, 48–50

potatoes and, 118–19

sacrifices, 55

India

agricultural productivity and industrialization in, 225–26

democracy and famines in, 193

demographic transition in Manupur, 229

green revolution in, 235

and the spice trade, 94–97

use of dwarf wheat varieties, 216–18

Indian Ocean trade networks, 77–78

Indochina, 14

Indonesia, 14

industrialization

agricultural productivity and, 221–22

environmental problems caused by, 139–40

fossil fuels and, 131–33

and Malthusian trap, 139–40

of sugar production, 116–17

of warfare, 168–70

International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), 218–19

IR8, 218–19

Iraq, Tell es-Sawwan grave goods, 38–39

Ireland

food exports to England, 134–35

potato as staple food in, 125

potato famine, 135–37

iron and steel industries, 132

IRRI (International Rice Research Institute), 218–19

irrigation projects, 41–42

Islam, 93–95

Jani Beg, 80–81

Jevons, William Stanley, 140

John of Escenden, 82

Kalahari bushmen, 35–36

Khoisan hunter-gatherers, 23

Khrushchev, Nikita, 188–89

Kosior, Stanislav, 180

Kranz, Julius, 208–9

!Kung Bushmen of the Kalahari, 35–36

Kutuzov, Mikhail Illarionovich, 157

Kyd, Robert, 110

land rents, 50–51

language and agricultural diffusion, 25

Lee, Richard Borshay, 36

Lee, Robert E., 168

leguminous plants, 203

leprosy, 119–20

Le Rossignol, Robert, 208

Lewis, Ben, 171

licorice, 72

life expectancy, hunter-gatherers versus farmers, 18

Linschoten, Jan Huyghen van, 99

Litvinov, Maxim, 171

local versus imported food, 102–4

lodging, 213

logistics, 146. See also war, food as fuel of

Louis XVI, king of France, 122

Lysenko, Trofim, 184

mace, 100

Madeira, 114

Magellan, Ferdinand, 98

maize

Columbus and, 112

in creation myths, 13–14

ethanol from, 140–42

Inca customs related to, 48–50

mutation and selection, 5–9

and pellagra, 8

spread of, 112–13

malabathrum, 70–71

malnutrition

hunter-gatherers versus farmers, 17–18

maize and, 8

nitrogen and, 200

Malthus, Thomas, 139–40

Malthusian trap, 226–29

Mamluks, 84

Manuel, king of Portugal, 96

Manupur demographic transition (India), 229

Mao Zedong, 182–88

Marco Polo, 86

Marie-Antoinette, queen of France, 122

Maya people, 54

Melanesia, big-man cultures in, 40–41

Mesopotamia

competition for agricultural land, 43

food as tax and rent, 50–51

offerings and sacrifices, 55–56

signs of social stratification, 46

tributes, 52–53

Uruk Standard Professions List, 31–32

Mexico. See also Aztecs

dwarf wheat varieties in, 214–16

maize mutation and selection, 5–9

Maya people, 54

monumental architecture and social stratification in, 47

Mittasch, Alwin, 208–9

molasses, 115

Molotov, Vyacheslav, 172

Moluccas, 97–99

Mongol Empire, 83

Morgan, Lewis H., 37

Mugabe, Robert, 193

Muggeridge, Malcolm, 180

musk, 72

Mussi, Gabriele de, 81

Nambikwara (Brazil), 40

Napoleon Bonaparte, 151–58

Battle of Austerlitz, 154–55

defense of the National Convention, 151–52

on food and defeating the Russians, 145

invasion of Russia, 155–58

reliance on foraging, 153–55

Waterloo, 162

NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization), 176–77

Natufian culture, 20

Navigation Acts (1660s), 108

Nernst, Walther Hermann, 210

Newcomen, Thomas, 133

nitrogen

agricultural practices and, 202–4

ammonia synthesis, 206–13

Boussingault’s experiments, 201–2

environment and, 230

in guano, 204

microbial fixation of, 202

and nutrition, 199–200

use of sodium nitrate deposits, 204–5

nixtamalization, 8

Norfolk four-course rotation, 125

Norin 10, 216

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), 176–77

nutmeg, 100

nutrition

hunter-gatherers versus farmers, 17–18

maize and, 8

nitrogen and, 199–200

obesity, 232–33

offerings and sacrifices, 53–56

organic farming, 237

Ottoman Turks, 83–84

Paddock, William and Paul, 217–18

Papin, Denis, 161

Parmentier, Antoine-Augustin, 121–22

Pasteur, Louis, 161

Peel, Robert, 137–38

pellagra, 8

Peng Dehuai, 185

Periplus, 75–76

Peruvian agricultural land, 43

pesticides, 231

Peta, 218–19

PI 178383, 241

Pigafetta, Antonio, 98

pigs, 11

pineapples, 107–8

Pizarro, Gonzalo, 90

plague (Black Death, bubonic plague), 80–82

Pliny the Elder, 102

political use of food, 171–96

Berlin airlift, 171–77

and collapse of the Soviet Union, 188–92

democracy and, 192–93

Mao’s Great Leap Forward, 182–88

protests and boycotts, 194–96

Stalin’s use of famine, 177–82

in Zimbabwe, 193

Popper, Karl, vii

population growth

demographic transition, 227–29

diseases and, 123–24

green revolution and, 226–29

historical, 226–27

Malthusian trap, 226–29

new crops and techniques and, 124–26

and sedentism, 21

Portugal

age of exploration, 97–98

sugar production, 114

potatoes, 117–23

comparison to rice, 123

in Europe, 121–22

Inca domestication of, 118–19

lack of popularity of, 119–20

potato famine, 135–37

use during famines, 120–21

wartime use of, 121

pottery, 44–45

poverty

agricultural productivity and, 226

as consequence of agriculture, 59

power. See wealth and power

Prester John, 91

private property concepts, 38

Ptolemy (Roman mathematician), 86

Ptolemy VIII, king of Egypt, 68–69

public-works projects, 41–42

pyramids, 51

The Question of Scarcity Plainly Stated and Remedies Considered (Young), 135

rachis, 9

railroads, 163–68

religious practices and traditions

and Portugal’s search for alternative routes to the Indies, 91–96

sacrifices and offerings, 53–56

spread of Islam, 77–80

and trade route, 77

rents, 50–51

Revolutionary War. See American Revolutionary War

rhubarb, 72

rice

in creation myths, 14

high-yield dwarf varieties of, 218–19

mutation and selection, 9–11

Robertson, Brian, 173

Roman Empire

Alexandria Tariff, 65

army foraging rules, 148

connection to the land, 57

and spice trade, 72–73

Rommel, Erwin, 169–70

Rose, John, 107

rum, 115

Run (island), 101

Russia. See also Soviet Union

Napoleon’s invasion of, 155–58

use of potatoes in, 120–21

sacrifices and offerings, 53–56

Sargon of Akkad, 52–53

scorched-earth policies, 148–49

Second Green Revolution, 235–37

sedentism, 20–21

seed banks, 238–42

seeds

dormancy, 10

genetically modified, 237

ripening time variation, 10–11

Sen, Amartya, 192–93

sheep, 11

Sherman, William, 164–68

Silk Road, 82

Sinbad the Sailor, 78

slavery and sugar production, 195

Smil, Vaclav, 232

Smith, Adam, 130–31

social stratification

chiefdoms, 41–44

emergence of big-man cultures, 38–41

food and wealth and power, 32–33

process and mechanisms of, 44–47

surplus food and, 31–32

sodium nitrate deposits, 204–5

South Korea, 194–95

Soviet Union. See also Russia

Berlin airlift, 171–77

collapse of, 188–92

Stalin’s use of famine, 177–82

Spain, age of exploration, 97–98

spices

Columbus’s search for, in the Americas, 85–91

cookbooks, 73

definition, 65–66

falling prices of (late seventeenth century), 101–2

and Magellan’s circumnavigation of the earth, 97–98

popularity of, 66–68

Portugal’s search for alternative routes to the Indies, 91–97

tall tales about, 63–65

spice trade

Arab traders, 77–78

and bubonic plague (Black Death), 80–82

Islam and, 82

land routes, 72

opposition to, 72–73

sea routes,

Stalin, Joseph, 177–82

Standard Professions List (Uruk, Mesopotamia), 31–32

steam engines, 133

Strabo, 75

stratification. See social stratification

sugar/sugarcane, 113–17

as calories for industrialization, 134

Columbus and, 113–14

ethanol from, 141

and food preservation, 160

industrialization of, 116–17

slavery and, 195

Sumerians, 14–15

Svalbard Global Seed Vault, 238–42

Swaminathan, Monkombu Sambasivan, 222

Tacitus, 73

tax, food as, 50–51

tbI gene, 6–7

tea, 134

Tell es-Sawwan (Iraq), 38–39

teosinte, 13

textile industry, 133

tgaI gene, 5

Theophrastus, 203

tooth decay, 18

Toscanelli, Paolo, 85–91

tough rachis mutation, 9

trade and trade networks, See also spice trade

exchange of knowledge and, 75–76

interdependence between geography and trade, 76

map, 74

and spread of Islam, 77–80

trade winds, 69

tributes, 52–53

Tunner, William H., 175

Turkey, health of hunter-gatherers versus farmers, 18

Ulm maneuver, 155

United Nations’ Food and Agricultural Organization, 241

United States

American Civil War, 163–68

American Revolutionary War, 149–51

Berlin airlift, 171–77

percentage of population involved in agriculture, 58

Uruk (Mesopotamia), 31–32

vampire myths, 8

vanilla, 90

Vegetius, 145

Venetian traders, 95

Voltaire, 85

war, food as fuel of, 145–70

Alexander’s supply reforms, 146–48

American Revolutionary War, 149–51

canned food and, 159–63

defensive removal of food and fodder, 148–49

elaborate supply systems of eighteenth century Europe, 149

foraging, living off the land (armies), 166–67

industrialization and, 168–70

motorized warfare of World War II, 169–70

Napoleon Bonaparte’s minimalist approach to logistics, 151–58

railroad transport and the American Civil War, 163–68

trench warfare of World War I, 168–69

War of the Pacific (1879), 204–5

Washington, George, 151

water usage, green revolution and, 231

Watt, James, 133

wealth and power, 32–33

big-man cultures, 38–41

Inca maize-related customs, 48–50

loss of association with the land, 57–59

modern association of food with, 57

social stratification, 32–33

wealth as contraceptive, 227–29

The Wealth of Nations (Smith), 123

Wellington, Duke of, 151

wheat

dwarf varieties of, 213–18

mutation and selection, 9–11

stripe-rust resistance, 241

Wilfarth, Hermann, 202

World Bank, 234

World Health Organization, 230

World War I, 211–12

World War II, 169–70

Wright, James, 195

Young, Arthur, 135

Zheng He, 84

ziggurats, 47

Zimbabwe, 193

A Note on the Author

TOM is business editor at the Economist and the author of A History of the World in 6 Glasses (a New York Times bestseller), The The Neptune and The Victorian described by the Wall Street Journal as a “dot-com cult classic.” The Victorian Internet was made into a documentary film, How the Victorians Wired the He has written about science and technology for numerous magazines and newspapers, including the the Daily and the New York Standage holds a degree in engineering and computer science from Oxford University, and he is the least musical member of a musical family. He lives in London, England, with his wife, daughter, and son.