Mangoes, Wheat, Pests

[Friday, January 30, noonish:  I posted this briefly yesterday before I saw that the blogger required permission for posting anything from his blog.  So I took it down right away and emailed for permission, which I just found in my email.]

Here's some interesting environmental history I found while working on my mango project. About how US wheat shipments to India in the 50's introduced a massive pest - Congress grass - into India. And how JFK got to eat fresh Indian mangoes at the Indian embassy, but the seeds were confiscated by the USDA. This was originally posted June 22, 2007:

Mangoes, Congress Grass and AmericaPL 480 – now how many know what that is all about? People from Bangalore will definitely know about Congress grass, because it has been the main cause for most allergy related misery & skin diseases out there. Ever figured out how it reached the city? It is an interesting story, because the seeds or the weeds traveled long and far to reach Bangalore…Parthenium or carrot weed (since it looks like a carrot plant), one of 10 worst weeds in the world, traveled with the PL 480 wheat that was imported from USA (some say Mexico – I am not 100% sure yet) many years back, under the Public loan 480 generously provided to India.
Now, Parthenium is called Congress weed or Congress Grass, do you know why? As far as I could gather, the white flower looks like a Gandhi cap …It is also called 'Safed topi 'or Gandhi Bhooti!!! But I could not see any resemblance, Was it because Congress was in power when the wheat import took place?? (Or maliciously meant to mean - as spread out & ingrained as the Congress party in India?)
SO what happened in 1956?? After partition, Western Punjab, India's wheat bowl had gone to Pakistan. A spell of successive bad monsoons added, there was a severe food crisis by 1955, reminiscent of the Bengal famine. India had no options. Chinese were already starving. Russia, India’s quasi-ally didn't have enough for its own people. Europe was just recovering from World War II and could not help. India didn't have any foreign currency to buy food even if it were available. Millions of people would have to be left to starve, if the US had not came to India’s rescue. That was how the famous PL 480 wheat import deal with US was signed by India in 1956.
US prohibited mango import from India for many long years. To tell you an interesting story, in 1960, during a state visit by Nehru, Alphonso mangoes imported from Bombay were served for Nehru’s state dinner with JFK by BK Nehru, the Indian ambassador. There was a caveat, after dinner, all seeds were to be collected & handed over to the USDA for incineration. Can you believe that these things happen??

The story goes on and ties back into Congress grass and the new laws to allow importation of Indian mangoes to the US. You can read the rest of the story at Maddy's" Ramblings.  Check out the rest of his blog too, some quirkily interesting, funny posts - like the one about the bee's painted onto urinals so men would aim better.  Another post that caught my fancy was about an Indian journalist who worked in Germany in the 30's and 40's.  The dialogue between three Indians trying to get into Switzerland and the SS Guard is a wonderfully funny look at cross-cultural meanings.  I also think I found it interesting because I'm about 2/3 through The Orientalist    whose main character is Baku born Jew who ends up in Berlin as a writer, converts to Islam.  Their time in Berlin would have overlapped and I wonder if the two knew each other, or at least about each other.