The history of botany isn’t always a headline-grabber for online publications, which is understandable. There’s not even that much cross-pollination, if you’ll forgive me – botanists tend to read about botany, and historians, history. If you’re an editor on the lookout for stories likely to generate as many clicks as possible, you’re much more likely to greenlight stories about political infighting and pop star heartbreaks.
But those editors are missing out on the many fascinating intersections between botany and major historical events over the centuries. For example, the infamous tulip bubble, aka ‘Tulipmania’, in the Dutch Republic in the 1630s, at the height of which rare tulip bulbs were traded for the price of an estate. This is often cited as one of the first recorded speculative bubbles in financial history. And it is not an isolated example of botany-based booms and busts. There was the Irish Potato Famine, the Amazon Rubber Boom, and the British Poppy Trade, which led directly to the Opium Wars of the 1830s and 1850s – and those are just the most prominent examples among many.
Today, we’re going to chart the history of the humble pistachio, which has a long and storied past dating back to the earliest human civilizations. The first known traces of pistachios (botanical classification Pistacia vera) were in Mesopotamia around 7,000 BCE. Excavations at the ancient city of Jarmo, located in the mountains of present-day Iraq, uncovered pistachio remains, suggesting that they were part of the diet of early communities in the Fertile Crescent.
Fast forward to the late 18th century, and pistachios had become commonplace throughout Europe, Africa, and Asia, with multiple sources showing their use in delicacies ranging from sausage recipes to sweet pastries. Pistachio ice cream has also been with us for a few centuries now.
But the story of how pistachios came to be a major specialty crop in America is particularly interesting. One of today’s keepers of this new tradition is Michael Amin, a fourth-generation pistachio farmer now based in Southern California. Having taken up his family’s farming trade in the 1980s, he has witnessed nearly four decades’ worth of pistachio development on the American West Coast.
“My family grew pistachios for generations,” says Amin. “When I first came to the United States in 1979, I saw that the soil and climate in places like California were ideal for this crop, but the American pistachio industry was still in its infancy. It had a long way to go to catch up.”
According to Amin, the story begins in the 19th century with the Office of Seed and Plant Introduction, a division of the federal government that actively scouted the world for crops that could thrive in American soil. “The Office of Seed and Plant Introduction was tasked with bringing all manner of crops to the United States and conducting research to see what would grow best here,” Amin explains. “These officials put pistachios on the radar of American farmers, but the real momentum behind American cultivation didn’t take place until much later.”
Other early adopters included Charles Mason, a judge and agriculturalist who brought pistachio seeds to California while serving as Commissioner of the U.S. Patent Office around the same time. Experiments using trees imported from France in 1875 showed promise, but commercial success was elusive. Edward J. Wickson, a leading cropper of the era, predicted a big future for pistachios in California—but decades after making this prediction, even he was forced to admit that the crop had yet to find its footing in the new world.
Real progress building an American pistachio industry began in the early 20th century, spearheaded by the Chico Seed Orchard, which tested dozens of varieties from the Middle East and North Africa. The orchard eventually evolved into a new entity called the Plant Production Section and became part of the U.S. Agricultural Research Service. There, pistachio trees were studied for 30 years. Crucially, in 1929, USDA plant explorer William E. Whitehouse collected pistachio seeds in Iran, including the now-famous Kerman variety, and introduced them to the United States. After a great deal of phytological research, Kerman pistachios proved highly adaptable to California’s climate and ultimately provided the foundation of the modern American pistachio industry.
“The University of California, Davis played a huge role in building a foundation for pistachios in America,” says Michael Amin. Researchers from UC Davis put in years of scientific study to determine which varieties of pistachios were most resistant to disease, produced the highest yields, and adapted well to the California environment. That’s when pistachio farming in America started to gather steam.”
Iran, long the world’s top pistachio producer, had to relinquish that title in the late 2000s when the United States surpassed it in global production, primarily from orchards located in California. Today, the American pistachio industry is booming, with the U.S. exporting the tasty green nuts all over the world.
“The pistachio is one of the most successful crops ever brought over to America from Iran,” concludes Michael Amin. “Now it’s thriving here. Over the past 40 or so years, pistachios have become a major source of income for farmers and a major export for this country. I feel very lucky to have played a part in this story.”
Thanks to a host of researchers, growers, and forward-thinking farmers like Michael Amin, the pistachio has gone from a snack enjoyed by ancient peoples to a modern-day American powerhouse crop available to all who enjoy a tasty treat high in protein and other nutrients. It’s another chapter in the story of the monumental intersections between botany and human history.
