Wine

via beanscenemag.com

If there is one thing that surprised me most about our trip to Kelleris, it's that grapes really will grow anywhere.  When we think of vineyards, we picture the warmth and sun of California or southern France- never did I imagine that wine- good wine- could be made right here in Denmark.  At the same time though, grapes are picky.  The set-up we saw, with the meticulously spaced out plants, pruned to perfection, not a limb out of place, showed a far more labor intensive process than I had imagined.  And if I thought I didn't know much about the winemaking process, I just had to wait a few minutes to see how little I knew about the finished product.  Of the five wines we tasted, four of them tasted exactly the same to me.  Clearly, I still have a lot to learn.

Grape Vine
via leagueathletics.com

Wine was first brewed over 8,000 years ago in the Middle East, and quickly became a favorite worldwide.  In ancient Egypt, in 3000 BC, wine was widely adored and had both ritual and religious significance.  Ancient Greece, Rome, and China all too loved this drink, and devoted loads of time, energy, and mythology to it.  Wine was so well loved that it found its way into many religions; christianity sees wine as the blood of Christ, is blessed at Jewish ceremonies, and the Greeks added a god of wine and revelry, Dionysus, to their parthenon. Wine's popularity continued well into Medieval times, where it was drunk at nearly every meal by the merchant and noble classes.  During this period, wine was often watered down, and mixed with spices or honey to make it less alcoholic and more appetizing.

Today, wine is as popular as ever.  According to the wine institute, the US alone consumes nearly 900 million gallons of wine each year- and Americans are far from the most prolific drinkers of wine. Per capita, the French drink over nine times more wine than Americans.  The world wide wine industry is worth over 2.5 billion dollars.  Wine truly is a wonder drink.

Fair Trade

Fair trade, at it's core, is a way for those at the bottom of the supply chain to earn more money and a larger percentage of the proceeds from the sale of the final product.  With most products, those who grow or create the natural resource used to make the product are the poorest and least well payed in the whole process.  While coffee farmers in Ethiopia live in poverty, corporations like Starbucks can make billion of dollars in profits selling the final product.   Many consider this to be exploitation and unacceptable, so the fair trade movement was born.

via fairtrade.net

The system works like this: a farm  or other growing organization joins a fair trade cooperative, and has to operate according to the fair trade standards of sustainability and political standards.  The fair trade organization oversees these cooperatives and ensures they act accordingly.  Distributors of the product in other countries must pay a higher price for the goods, as well as for the right to use the fair trade logo on their packaging, but may sell the product for whatever price they like.  The system tries to ensure that underprivileged farmers are not taken advantage of, however the effectiveness of fair trade is hotly debated.

The biggest criticism against fair trade is that it simply does not help those it is designed to help.  Companies can sell fair trade products at very high mark ups, but there is no regulation on what percent of the extra revenue has to go to the farmers.  Often this leads to companies making a higher profit off fair trade goods, and the growers not seeing any of that benefit- the exact opposite of what the system hoped to achieve.  Another problem is that for the cooperatives to comply with fair trade regulations is very costly, and growing organizations may end up spending more money on this than they receive from fair trade.  Other growers who are not fair trade have problems with it as well.  Because the prices are fixed for fair trade products, they can not respond to market forces. Thus, when the supply of these goods outstrips the demand, prices should fall but they cannot.  Therefore, the non fair trade farms, who can respond to market forces, see their prices fall significantly, while the fair trade prices are untouched.

Plants of Power

Over the course of history, plants have played an instrumental role in the development of societies and the course of human discovery.  From tobacco and cotton bringing economic success to young America, or the spice trade jump starting the age of exploration, plants are intrinsically woven into out past.  Today, however, it may seem that the power of plants is weaning.  New methods of transportation and trade make it easier than ever the share plants with the rest of the world and advancements in agriculture have left far fewer people food scarce.  However there are plants today that are having enormous impacts on us and our lives as we speak.

A marijuana leaf
via teens.drugabuse.gov

Across the world, the use of marijuana is a hot button topic and effects many lives.  The plants is native to south and central Asia, and has been used as a recreational drug and medicine for thousands of years.  Today in the United States, marijuana is a large contributor to the 'war on drugs', and is responsible for a large number of arrests and imprisonments.  Proponents of the drug argue that not only is it not harmful, or at least no more so than other legal drugs like alcohol, but that marijuana has great potential as a medicine, and that by keeping it illegal, we are preventing research that could have great impacts on medicine.

Ears of corn
via fineartamerica.com

Another of the most influential plants in the modern world also happens to the most produced crop in the world.  Maize is used not just for eating, but in countless other industries.  While it remains a staple crop in diets across the world, human consumption is the smallest percentage of corn use.  It's biggest use is as feed for livestock, and second biggest is the production of ethanol.  But what really makes corn so extraordinary is the vast scale of products and processes in which it is used.  Plastics, fabrics, papers, and many more products contain corn byproducts.

Palm Oil
via image.ec21.com

Palm oil is a vegetable oil widely used in cooking across the world, particularly in Africa and south east Asia.  On it's own, the oil palm, the plant which produces palm oil, is not a very significant plant.  It is important in the societies which use it but it is not world changing.  What makes the oil palm such an important plant is that it provides very high yields and is lucrative to grow.  This has lead to farmers expanding their farms greatly, and clear cutting rain forest if need be.  Huge tracts of rain forest have been destroyed, including on some islands where the wildlife is unique.  Plants in rain forests hold great potential as medicines or other products, and by eliminating these habitats we are eradicating plants and possibilities that could drastically change the future.

Plants and the Population

Recently the world population broke 7 million, the largest population the earth has ever seen.  Only 50 years ago, the world population was just over 3 million, and the world was faced with mass starvation and famine. What happened in the past decades that has allowed to population to grow at such a massive rate is known as the Green Revolution.  A series of scientific advancements, such as genetically modified plants, improved fertilizers and pesticides, and others, have allowed crop yields to swell.

It might seem like the world's food problems are solved, but with more food the population grows, and with a larger population we need more food.  Even with the advances of the green revolution, we are quickly reaching the limits of what our food supplies can handle.  Nations are searching for ways to provide their people with food security, though many of the options may do harm as well as good.

One option to increase food security is to simply try and grow more crops with the existing methods and infrastructure.  While this may work for some countries, there are many problems with this solution.  First of all, some countries are producing as much food as they can already, or they do not have the land necessary to grow more.  Even in countries with the ability to grow more, the effects of farming on such a large scale can be disastrous to the local environment and water supply.  Over use of nitrate based fertilizers, for example, can lead to algae blooms in bodies of water, sucking all of the oxygen out of the water and killing marine life.  Other pesticides may simply pollute the water supply directly.

Another option some countries are considering is to buy fertile land from poorer nations, sometimes called a "Land Grab".  While this will help the "Grabbing" country with their food security, it will only worsen problems for the poorer country.  Not only have they given up fertile land, but they now face the effects of pollution and environmental damage as well as the possible exploitation of their peoples.

Who's Number One?

Of the plants we've looked at so far, each has had a direct and profound effect on world history.  From tobacco helping the American colonies to thrive to tea and opium causing wars between great world powers.  Huge innovations, from the industrial revolution to the advent of writing have all been driven by plants.  As important as they all are, however, none have had as extraordinary effect on the world as spices.

Spices
via www.doscadesa.com

Put simply, spices drove the Age of Exploration.  The spice trade caused the mixing of cultures and religions, the exploration of the globe, and the conquering of societies that shaped history and made the world we know today.  From the beginning, traders on the silk road brought not just their valuable wares but their cultures with them, spreading them across Asia and the Middle East.  The spread of Islam was helped along greatly by the traveling and mixing of people in those times.  Years later when Vasco de Gama and Columbus set sail, it was spices they were searching for.

via vos.noaa.gov

The effects of the hunt for spices are still apparent today.  In South America, where Columbus and the Spaniards landed, the indigenous populations are all but gone.  Residents today are of mixed spanish descent, and speak Spanish.  Where numerous European countries set up colonies to search for a route to the east is now the United States.  The lands that are home to spices, the 'Spice Islands', India, and others, still feel the effects of years of colonialism and western influence and oppression.  Many of these areas face poor economies and the loss of their indigenous peoples and cultures.  Many plants have changed the world, but none like spices.

East India Company

When most Americans hear "East India Company" and "Tea" in the same sentence, images of the Boston Tea Party and the American Revolution quickly spring to mind.  But there was another EIC, the British one, and it's relationship with tea had even more dramatic effects on world history.  And it began not with tea, but with cotton.

Indian calico
http://nieszvintagefabric.blogspot.dk/

Founded in the early 18th century, the BEIC was to be the connection between England the wealth of spices and other exotic goods in the Indies.  Upon arrival in India, the BEIC found the locals wearing an incredible new fabric that was durable, soft, and cheap: cotton.  The english quickly grew a taste for this new product, and the BEIC was thriving as the only importer.  Not only did cotton bolster the success of this company, but it had dramatic effects for India as well.  Looking for more control over the cotton industry, the BEIC created their own army and quickly took control of the Indian government, creating a colonial rule.

With the boom of cotton, the BEIC grew and grew to become one of the largest european companies in the east.  The company had it's hands in another one of England's favorite products, tea.  However the Chinese, who controlled the growing and processing of tea, was closed off and not interested in trade.  All they would accept was silver.  With the Brits demanding so much tea, it didn't take long for silver to become scarcer, and the BEIC wanted to find another way. China refused to trade for any goods, but if the BEIC could find a way to force them...

The poppy plant
saastastebuds.files.wordpress.com

The poppy is a plant native to India, from which the highly addictive opium is made.  The BEIC ramped up the production of poppy in their colony and began to feed opium into China.  As addiction spread to epidemic levels, the BEIC forced it's way in and traded it's opium for silver, and silver for tea.  The effects on China were devastating.  They fought and lost two wars against the British trying to force the end of the opium trade, suffering even more loss, including Hong Kong.

Chinese opium den

We know that the Dutch East India Company and it's tea had a dramatic impact on the history and founding of America, and helped contribute to a war.  Yet that all pales in comparison to the BEIC, and the wars fought, colonies formed,  lives destroyed, and countries crippled by its appetite for tea.

Beautiful Barley

berkeleywellness.com

Barley, a member of the grass family, and a type of cereal grain, has had a monumental impact on the course of human history.  Native to western Asia and northern Africa, barley thrived in the Fertile Crescent at the time of the Neolithic Revolution, and was one of the first crops to be domesticated.  Even today, barley remains one of the most grown crops in the world.  Why, you ask, do we love barley so? One word: Beer.

groupon.ie

In a few steps and with some complicated chemistry, barley can be turned into delicious, delicious beer.  Evidence of beer brewing can be found as far back as 9,500 BCE, making it one of the oldest alcoholic beverages known to man.  And the early peoples love of this drink helped to shape the world as we know it.  Some argue that the written language was created to keep track of beer- some of the earliest examples of cuneiform are ledgers and receipts for beer.  The great pyramids of Giza were not built by slaves, but by paid workers, who were paid, of course, in beer.  Beer also sustained huge populations in areas where water was not safe to drink.

Our love of beer has not dwindled in recent years.  Beer is the most consumed alcoholic beverage on the planet, and the third most consumed beverage of all, beating out coffee, soda, milk, and juices. Today, the beer industry worldwide is worth over $400 billion.