Format:
1 online resource (251 pages)
Edition:
2nd ed.
ISBN:
9789086866533
Content:
Food security has been and always will be a human concern. Food security has always been fragile, threatened by a variety of factors including plant disease epidemics. Several plant disease epidemics of the past lead to questions like: What happened? How did people deal with these epidemics? What were the social and political consequences? This volume deals with such questions in six selected chapters. Chapter 1 discusses black stem rust of wheat in antiquity, and how its epidemics were perceived by the ancients. Chapter 2 reconstructs a forgotten epidemic of yellow stripe rust, 1846, on rye, a staple food in Continental Europe. Chapter 3 describes the epidemics of potato late blight in Continental Europe, 1844-46, that caused the Continental Famine and - in the longer reach - contributed to the European revolutions of 1848. Chapter 4 studies the impact of plant disease on the food situation in the neutral Netherlands during World War I. Chapter 5 looks at belligerent Germany during World War I, ravaged by plant disease. Chapter 6 treats the problem of under-rating and over-estimating the effect of plant diseases on the course of history: the effects of ergot on political events in Russia, 1722, and in France, 1779, of black stem rust on wheat on the Russian Famine, 1932/3, and of rice brown spot on the Bengal Famine, 1943. This publication is of interest to plant pathologists, historians, economists and sociologists, interested in history, and with a focus on food.
Content:
Intro -- Preface -- Table of contents -- List of abbreviations -- List of tables -- Table 1.1. Data from rust interception trials near Rome. -- Table 2.1. Kingdom Prussia, 1846, yields per province in per cent of 'normal'. -- Table 2.2. Mean grain and straw losses in per cent for wheat and rye in the Belgian provinces, 'adjusted losses', and hectoliter weights of rye and wheat (calculated from data in Table 2.3 -- hectolitre weights from Anonymous, 1850b). 'Adjusted loss' of rye -- Table 2.3. Mean grain yields in hl/ha and straw yields in kg/ha for wheat and rye in Belgian provinces (Data from Anonymous, 1850b). -- Table 3.1. Weekly budget of an average family of rural poor, consisting of three adults and three children, according to Heldring (1845: 28). He compared the new prices, after the blight of 1845, with the old prices before the blight. Prices are in Dutch c -- Table 3.2. Birth rate, death rate, and population growth rate in six countries, data in per mil, averaged over 5-year periods. The increase in death rate and the decrease in birth rate from 1841/45 to 1846/50 is seen in all six countries. Among the causes -- Table 3.3. Tentative estimates of excess mortality due to potato late blight and its corollary diseases, 1846-1848. For the calculation see 3.3.2. I did not consider 1849 in order to avoid most of the mortality due to cholera. Cholera swept over Europe 18 -- Table 4.1. The provinces chosen for comparison and some of their characteristics (seasons 1915-1918). Source: Annual Reports. -- Table 4.2. Monthly weather data averaged over 28 years, 1903 to 1930, as measured by the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute at De Bilt, in the centre of the country. Source: Annual Reports.
Note:
Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources
Additional Edition:
ISBN 9789086860869
Additional Edition:
Erscheint auch als Druck-Ausgabe ISBN 9789086860869
Language:
English
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