“Tropicalization” and the Making of Fertile Ground for Ultra-Tropical Crops: Mainland United States Cultivation of Breadfruit in a Changing Climate

Keywords: agriculture, Artocarpus altilis, breadfruit, climate change, food production, historical geography, Florida, interview, survey, sustainability, tropicalization
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Sunday
Session Start / End Time: 2/27/2022 08:00 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/27/2022 09:20 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 14

Abstract

Breadfruit (Artocarpus altilis) is a domesticated tree crop found throughout the Pacific Islands and in other tropical regions of the world where it has been introduced, most notably in the Caribbean, where it was established during the 18th Century as a food source for enslaved plantation laborers. Effort to introduce breadfruit to the United States has, throughout its long history, been challenged by the tree’s intolerance for cold temperatures—the early 20th Century botanist Julia Morton referred to breadfruit as an “ultra-tropical” crop. Breadfruit thrives in Hawai‘i, where it was introduced prior to European contact. On the United States mainland, however, only the extreme south of Florida has historically been consistently warm enough to support breadfruit cultivation, though much effort was made to establish breadfruit more broadly, especially in the Southern states whose economies depended upon slave-based plantation agriculture—all without success. Today, however, likely owing to warming temperatures associated with global climate change and the “tropicalization” of the southern United States, more Florida-based growers are finding success cultivating breadfruit trees and producing fruit increasingly northward in the state. This paper reviews the history of attempts to introduce breadfruit to the mainland United States, from the earliest period of American independence into the 21st Century. Then, using a mixed-methods approach including interviews and surveys among contemporary Florida breadfruit growers, this paper investigates the current status and geographical range of breadfruit in the United States and considers both the sustainability implications and the remaining environmental challenges regarding its cultivation.