Paper short abstract:

Blueberries' century-long transformation into a global crop rested upon intersections between science, government-sponsored research, economic policies, and markets. This paper explores the complex histories of agroecological systems that undergird everyday blueberry consumption today.

Paper long abstract:

The century-long transformation of the blueberry into a global crop highlights the complex social circumstances that shape eating habits and opportunities. Blueberries’ commodification began in the late nineteenth century with lowbush varieties in Maine and eastern Canada, in an agroecological system of so-called wild varieties that actually proliferated under human management. In particular, legally-defined land leasing arrangements and regular controlled burns in the state of Maine facilitated the commercial rise of blueberries as a canned product. The fruit that dominates today’s trade in fresh blueberries, however, comes from a highbush species, Vaccinium corymbosum, that was not domesticated until the early twentieth century. In 1909, Frederic Vernon Coville, chief botanist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, made the key discovery that blueberry plants require highly acidic soil. Subsequent collaboration between Coville and New Jersey cranberry grower Elizabeth White then led to improved highbush varieties, which formed the basis for a competing agroecological system in the form of commercially farmed blueberries. Domesticated blueberry production, once confined to North America, spread abroad in the post-World War II period, and blueberry plants' ongoing globalization continues today. Blueberries’ emergence as a global crop grew out of an elaborate combination of circumstances and intersections between science, government-sponsored research, economic policies, and markets. In an urbanizing world of people increasingly alienated from their food sources, blueberries provide a reminder of the intricate relationships between people and plants that shape both basic prospects of survival and specific ways of life, whether for good or for ill.