History through the eyes of the potato - Leo Bear-McGuinness

翻译人员: Khoo Ziting 校对人员: Claire Zhang

Baked or fried,

烘培或油炸，

boiled or roasted,

水煮或烘烤，

as chips or fries.

薯片或薯条，

At some point in your life, you've probably eaten a potato.

在你的生命里， 你应该吃过土豆。

Delicious, for sure,

土豆的美味那就不用说了

but the fact is potatoes have played a much more significant role in our history

但其实它在我们的历史里 扮演了更重要的角色，

than just that of the dietary staple we have come to know and love today.

不只是如今我们所知与喜爱的主食而已。

Without the potato,

没有土豆的话，

our modern civilization might not exist at all.

现代文明可能不会存在。

8,000 years ago in South America, high atop the Andes,

八千年前， 在南美安第斯山的顶端

ancient Peruvians were the first to cultivate the potato.

古秘鲁人成为了最早种植土豆的人。

Containing high levels of proteins and carbohydrates,

它含有高蛋白质和碳水化合物，

as well as essential fats, vitamins and minerals,

以及必需脂肪酸、维生素和矿物质，

potatoes were the perfect food source to fuel a large Incan working class

土豆是完美的食源， 为印加劳工提供了大量能量

as they built and farmed their terraced fields,

来建立与种植梯田，

mined the Rocky Mountains,

挖掘落基山脉矿产，

and created the sophisticated civilization of the great Incan Empire.

以及建立起伟大的印加帝国文明。

But considering how vital they were to the Incan people,

虽然土豆对印加人民非常重要，

when Spanish sailors returning from the Andes

但当西班牙水手从安第斯山返国，

first brought potatoes to Europe,

首次将土豆引进欧洲时，

the spuds were duds.

它们却变得毫无价值。

Europeans simply didn't want to eat

欧洲人根本不想食用它，

what they considered dull and tasteless oddities from a strange new land,

他们把它当成来自陌生异地、 食之无味的怪产物

too closely related to the deadly nightshade plant belladonna for comfort.

跟致命的茄属植物 ——颠茄太像了。

So instead of consuming them,

与其吃掉它们，

they used potatoes as decorative garden plants.

欧洲人将土豆作为观赏植物。

More than 200 years would pass before the potato caught on

两百年后，

as a major food source throughout Europe,

土豆才成为欧洲的主食，

though even then,

即使在那个时候，

it was predominantly eaten by the lower classes.

土豆充其量只是下层阶级的食物。

However, beginning around 1750,

但大约从1750年起，

and thanks at least in part

在一定的程度上

to the wide availability of inexpensive and nutritious potatoes,

因为廉价而又有营养的土豆开始普及，

European peasants with greater food security

欧洲农民有了食物保障

no longer found themselves

发觉到

at the mercy of the regularly occurring grain famines of the time,

他们不必再受制于 经常发生的谷物饥荒了，

and so their populations steadily grew.

他们的人口开始稳定上升。

As a result, the British, Dutch and German Empires

这样一来，英国、荷兰与德意志帝国

rose on the backs of the growing groups of farmers, laborers, and soldiers,

在农民、劳工和军人的成长下崛起，

thus lifting the West to its place of world dominion.

提升了西方在世界上的统治者地位。

However, not all European countries sprouted empires.

然而，并非所有欧洲国家 都发展成为帝国。

After the Irish adopted the potato,

爱尔兰在培育了土豆之后，

their population dramatically increased,

人口急剧上升，

as did their dependence on the tuber as a major food staple.

他们过于依赖这个主食。

But then disaster struck.

然而，灾难爆发了。

From 1845 to 1852,

从1845至1852年，

potato blight disease ravaged the majority of Ireland's potato crop,

土豆枯萎病肆虐了大部分 爱尔兰的土豆作物，

leading to the Irish Potato Famine,

导致了爱尔兰土豆饥荒，

one of the deadliest famines in world history.

这是世界历史上致命的饥荒之一。

Over a million Irish citizens starved to death,

超过一百万爱尔兰人民饥饿致死，

and 2 million more left their homes behind.

两百多万人逃离家园。

But of course, this wasn't the end for the potato.

当然，土豆并不因此消声灭迹

The crop eventually recovered,

作物最后恢复正常。

and Europe's population, especially the working classes,

而欧洲人口，尤其是劳工阶级

continued to increase.

持续增加。

Aided by the influx of Irish migrants,

得力于爱尔兰移民的涌入

Europe now had a large, sustainable, and well-fed population

欧洲如今已拥有庞大的、 持续增长且丰衣足食的人口，

who were capable of manning the emerging factories

足够应付新兴工业所需的劳动力，

that would bring about our modern world via the Industrial Revolution.

从而，工业革命也引领人们 进入现代化世界。

So it's almost impossible to imagine a world without the potato.

所以，几乎无法想象 在一个没有土豆的世界中，

Would the Industrial Revolution ever have happened?

工业革命是否还会发生？

Would World War II have been lost by the Allies

第二次世界大战的盟军部队 若没了易栽培的土豆充饥，

without this easy-to-grow crop that fed the Allied troops?

会不会因此战败？

Would it even have started?

第二次世界大战到底会不会发生？

When you think about it like this,

当你这样想来，

many major milestones in world history can all be at least partially attributed

世界历史上的许多重大里程碑

to the simple spud from the Peruvian hilltops.

多少的归功于这秘鲁山顶上平凡的土豆。