Because rice is still more efficient in terms of calories per square meters provided. In spite of the difficulty in planting and harvesting it really can't be beat as a staple crop.
An acre of rice feeds more people than an acre of potatoes. And they’ve always had a lot of fricking people.
China did, actually. In addition to what the others said, potatoes were typically grown on the mountains at altitudes rice didn't survive on. The introduction of the potato was one of several reasons why China's population boomed from about 300m to about 600m before industrialisation caught on.
Rice is more calorie efficient per acre if you’ve got the climate and irrigation. Potatoes grow well in craggy cold geography… like Ireland
Thanks ricebros. I don't know where I picked up the idea that rice was hard to grow. I guess I would have guessed northern china to be very cold and thus potatoland though.
>rice was hard to grow
Rice cultivation rewards diligence. That is, if you work harder at weeding and so on, you'll get more and better rice. What's more, Asia doesn't have the one growing season like in Europe. So there's no off season. At least that's how I've heard the difference in work ethic explained.
China did, actually. In addition to what the others said, potatoes were typically grown on the mountains at altitudes rice didn't survive on. The introduction of the potato was one of several reasons why China's population boomed from about 300m to about 600m before industrialisation caught on.
/tg/ what was your country using in a similar fashion before potatoes arrived from the new world? mine chestnuts. A lot of traditional dishes still use them
>try backyard gardening >get 40 liter plastic buckets >drill holes >get soil >plant chunks of potato >water them, cover with dirt over time >every year they are either thumb sized at best or they get eaten by grubs that I don't even know how they got into the bucket >give up
If the food gets cut off I'm fricked.
A decent sized bag of each will probably run you about $25-30, but that's enough for maybe 8 buckets, assuming you're using those big plastic ones you see at most hardware stores.
Farming is hard work, even when it's just potatoes*
* of course there's an asterisk here because America exists where you can be paid specifically not to farm
That said, growing is more about soil quality than anything else, and knowing how to improve local soil quality is a major differentiator between a casual and an accomplished farmer. Alternatively you can plant an orchard and wait 7 years.
GM should allow this and create potato guild, which shall regulate who can own and raise potatoes
Grimdark saved
Why didn't china import potatoes and stop eating hard-as-frick-to-farm rice?
cuz Korea stole all the potatoes!
Because rice is still more efficient in terms of calories per square meters provided. In spite of the difficulty in planting and harvesting it really can't be beat as a staple crop.
calories maybe but not in terms of actual nutrition
potatoes are the best
Thanks ricebros. I don't know where I picked up the idea that rice was hard to grow. I guess I would have guessed northern china to be very cold and thus potatoland though.
Most of the rice production in China is in the mountainous and wet south, ideal for rice paddies. Northern China cultivates more wheat.
>rice was hard to grow
Rice cultivation rewards diligence. That is, if you work harder at weeding and so on, you'll get more and better rice. What's more, Asia doesn't have the one growing season like in Europe. So there's no off season. At least that's how I've heard the difference in work ethic explained.
An acre of rice feeds more people than an acre of potatoes. And they’ve always had a lot of fricking people.
China did, actually. In addition to what the others said, potatoes were typically grown on the mountains at altitudes rice didn't survive on. The introduction of the potato was one of several reasons why China's population boomed from about 300m to about 600m before industrialisation caught on.
Rice is more calorie efficient per acre if you’ve got the climate and irrigation. Potatoes grow well in craggy cold geography… like Ireland
>no more starvation
/tg/ what was your country using in a similar fashion before potatoes arrived from the new world? mine chestnuts. A lot of traditional dishes still use them
>try backyard gardening
>get 40 liter plastic buckets
>drill holes
>get soil
>plant chunks of potato
>water them, cover with dirt over time
>every year they are either thumb sized at best or they get eaten by grubs that I don't even know how they got into the bucket
>give up
If the food gets cut off I'm fricked.
You could make a Spud Box.
Try putting alternating layers of bloodmeal and bonemeal in the dirt. That always worked for me. You can get them at any farm supply store.
I'll give that a shot. Is it cheap?
What?
A decent sized bag of each will probably run you about $25-30, but that's enough for maybe 8 buckets, assuming you're using those big plastic ones you see at most hardware stores.
Farming is hard work, even when it's just potatoes*
* of course there's an asterisk here because America exists where you can be paid specifically not to farm
That said, growing is more about soil quality than anything else, and knowing how to improve local soil quality is a major differentiator between a casual and an accomplished farmer. Alternatively you can plant an orchard and wait 7 years.
>GM realizes the players also brought diseases from the old world to the new world
>no natives with resistances to old poxes
>grimdark slowly revives
Nobody cares.
If your setting can be fixed with potatoes, it's most certainly not grimdark.
>the potatoes are blighted
>the Iris- peasants starve to death again!
Your GM is shit.
All he has to do is introduce a little world called "famine".
>salamander infestation poisones all the wells