Non sequitur: one synonym is a loanword, and was used for illustration, another (yours) is not. As a civilized guy (learn from him!) named Confucius once said, the message and the messenger are two different things and are not connected, thus my opinions and motivation are beside the point. Potato riots of 18th century happen to be a bit of history.
And in the societies of confucism, human life has low meaning and always has. Observe, a Chinaman looses his top knot and their emperor's order was that he would be put to death. Nothing much has changed with modern day China. Japan was very similar on their outlook upon peasants. The British mean while were busy pushing heroine and its trade, while the Germans were exterminating African tribes in their colonies.
As for your bit of history, it is also a bit of history that until the 1830s (actually later) Tomatoes in the US were considered poisonous weeds.
Your opinions and motivations color your posts and are the driving factor behind them.