Chapter 4 Summary and Analysis

Chapter 4 presents a scattered monograph regarding the potato, or tuber derived from Solanum tuberosum. At 57 pages, the chapter is of average length, and portions of the chapter were previously published in a 1998, edition of The New York Times Magazine. The chapter uses the phrase potato, nearly interchangeably, to refer to the plant itself and to refer to the edible tuber. The material is presented in a fairly objective style, and the chapter is the best-developed and well-presented chapter in the text. Topics considered include the Andean origin of potato culture, early European cultivation, Irish cultivation, the Irish potato famine, modern American monoculture cultivation and the implications of the Monsanto Corporation's genetically engineered NewLeaf potato cultivar. The tone is more formal and far more objective than the remainder of the book; the potato plant is presented objectively and does not suffer from...