Love Potatoes? Read About This Food That Changed World History

Potato: Data and Facts

Potatoes rule the world of our palate. It is a major nutrition source and a versatile raw material used to prepare thousands of different and tasty dishes in thousands of geographies and cultures.

It was in 7000 BCE that the inhabitants of the Andes mountains in South America began to cultivate potatoes. Globally, China is now the biggest producer of this crop. Potatoes provide us with 4 or 5 times more calories than any grain. They are a source of vitamin C and can protect against vitamin C deficiency disease and scurvy. One potato has more potassium than a banana.

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The history of potatoes parallels the history of modern civilisation in many ways, as this tasty vegetable crossed continents, undertook historically significant human voyages, and fed millions who otherwise might have perished in hunger.

The Andean Potato

Potatoes originally came from The Andes Mountain ranges in South America. The discovery of the Americas brought many new food crops, including potatoes, to Europe and the Old World. The Andean potatoes now differ from potatoes we know in size, colour, and diversity.

The people of the Andean mountains adhered to their age-old varieties and cultivation practices while the rest of the world could refine them- creating hybrids for commercial cultivation over time. Andean potatoes are cultivated in the mountain stretches of Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador at high altitudes and come in different shapes and colours.

More than 5000 native potato varieties are cultivated in the Andes, and the International Potato Centre in Peru has a live genome collection of 5000 native Andean potato varieties. Many wild potatoes in the Andes have toxic ingredients, solanine and tomatine, that make them inedible for humans. However, the indigenous wisdom had it that if one consumed these potatoes cooked in a gravy of water and clay, the toxins get attached to the clay and pass out of the body through faecal matter without causing harm. These poisonous potatoes are still consumed in Peru and Bolivia after boiling with clay.

The Columbian Exchange and Potato

After Christopher Columbus' voyage to the Americas in 1492, the Old World and the newly discovered world exchanged people, diseases, food crops, and ideas. This is referred to as the Columbian Exchange in history. The Old World was Europe and the Eastern hemisphere as a whole.

Along with many food crops such as sweet potatoes, Cassava, Maize, and peanuts, potatoes were part of this far-reaching exchange in history. Tobacco was another remarkable new world crop, but that story is for another time.

Europeans also brought the viruses and bacteria that infected them in the Old World to the New World and infected the native people of the Americas who had not known these diseases- smallpox, measles, cholera and typhoid- creating another grim historical narrative of civilisational exchanges. That tale is for another time and not part of the potato's socio-political and economic history that I try to outline here.

The arrival of potatoes in the Old World from the New World, social scientists say, caused an acceleration in population growth and urbanisation, and Ireland is a typical case study. Potatoes provided better calories and nutrition to the masses at a lower price than the diets that ordinary people of the Old World had. The Old World’s staple menu was wheat, rye bread, turnips, and a limited variety of vegetables. Today, the Old World people top the list of the largest potato consumers.

Evolutionary Advantage

The crops introduced to the Old World from the New World had a greater advantage than their parent plants when growing in Europe and the Eastern Hemisphere. They did not have to fight their natural predators in a new soil and climate because most of their pests and diseases were indigenous and left behind. This was a veritable evolutionary advantage for these crops. The tropics of the New World had more plant pests and diseases than the temperate zones of Europe. The transplanted crops thus had fewer hardships to endure in their host countries.

Potato and Malthusian Crisis

In 1798, Thomas Robert Malthus, an English cleric and economist, stated in a famous book that he warned- that the increased food production that Europe was witnessing (also triggered by new crops such as potatoes) could lead to a population explosion, which in turn would nullify the good effects of the increase in production, and lead to famine among the poorer sections of the society. This economic concept was named ‘The Malthusian Trap’. The Irish potato famine proved him right.

The Irish Potato Famine

In the late 1700s, there was a misinformed perception that "common people" consumed too much bread, meat, and very few vegetables. It was thought that this was harmful to their health. Potatoes were promoted as a better alternative, given the prevalence of diseases like scurvy caused by Vitamin C deficiency among the people, and potatoes being rich in Vitamin C. By the 1800s, the diet of the Irish constituted only potatoes and milk, breakfast, lunch and dinner, day in and day out, 365 days a year.

An example of the newly found frenzy about potatoes can be seen in the words of William Buchan, a well-known physician of Scotland, who wrote extensively about diet and nutrition. He wrote, "Some of the stoutest men we know are brought upon milk and potatoes. Dr Pearson, who has bestowed some pains in analysing this root, says that potatoes and water alone, with common salt, can nourish man completely." (Buchan, 1871, p.30).

In Ireland, during the first half of the 1800s, potato-induced population growth is quite evident for any probing history or anthropology enthusiast who traces the data about it.

By then, Ireland had become a colony of Great Britain. Eventually, the politics of bread and potatoes that Britain engaged in destroyed Ireland’s food security. In 1845, the potato crop failed in Ireland and across Europe because of blight, causing 1 million people in Ireland to die. Around 1.5 million people had to flee Ireland in search of food. The blight was caused by a mould named Phytophthora infestans, which caused black and brown spots to appear on the potato plant, followed by sudden wilting and rot. The Irish people were paying rent to the British and Protestant landlords for their land, and once the crop failed, the landlords began evicting the peasants in thousands. Those who ate the rotting potatoes were infested with typhus and cholera. The infected and evicted both crowded workhouses, turning the situation even worse.

The unstoppable march of death destroyed entire village populations. Unburied bodies rotted everywhere, and many survivors tried to migrate to America only to die on the ships, which later came to be called the ‘coffin ships.’ Britain’s political oppression of Ireland and its delayed response to the famine were criticised as the larger cause leading to the worst-ever mass death in Ireland. So many died, Ireland’s population dropped from 8 million to 5 million, and the seeds of Irish nationalism and extremism were sown in this famine that lasted four years.

Guano and Potatoes

The Peruvian islands had a welcome surprise in store for Europe. Guano, the semi-solid urine of Peruvian Pelicans was deposited layer after layer on the islands off the coast of Peru and turned into the new miracle fertiliser for potato farmers. The 150-foot-thick Guano deposits covered most of these islands' soil, and big potato farmers in Europe began to export them. Guano thus became the first high-intensity fertiliser in the world and a harbinger of modern fertilised farming.

Potato Flowers

The potato flowers are purple and star-shaped. Marie Antoinette, the last queen of France (and the queen executed by guillotine by the French revolutionaries), used to put potato flowers in her hair. Her husband, Louis XVI, the king, also grew fond of this flower from the New World and put them in his coat’s buttonhole. The king and the queen wanted to popularise the cultivation and consumption of potatoes in their kingdom and thought they could boost the interest through these gestures.

The Bavarian Potato War

In 1779, Frederick II of Prussia fought a succession war with Joseph II of Austria. The war was fought mostly as skirmishes, not a full-fledged conflict, as both sides mainly tried to disrupt the other side's food supplies. Not much actual fighting took place. This war was called the Potato War. It was also reported that food was short in supply, and the Prussian soldiers spent most of their time foraging for potatoes.

Vincent Van Gogh's Potato Eaters

‘Potato Eaters’, one of the most iconic paintings by Vincent Van Gogh, was inspired by Van Gogh's love for the peasants and the poor. With its dark tone and coarse strength, the painting reflects the lives, hardships, and effortless community love of the simple souls depicted in it. The association of potatoes with poverty and village life inspired Van Gogh to paint this classic work of art.

How to Eat Potatoes

To get the full nutritional benefits, eat potatoes whole, including the skin. The most popular recipes that the world loves are,

Mashed Potatoes (France/England)

Pommes Frites (Belgium)

Fish and Chips (England)

Poutine (Canada)

Raclette (Switzerland)

Steak-Frites (France)

Tortilla-de-Patata (Spain)

Vada Pav (India)

Kapsalon (Netherlands)

Potato Home Fries (USA)

Cheese Fries (USA)

Pie and Mash (England)

Potato Chips and French Fries

Potato chips symbolise modern American life and potatoes are the ultimate raw material of America's capitalist production. Mass-produced, it is one of the most popular consumer products.

The Americans invented Potato chips. The producers of potato chips claim that this food product supplies us with vitamin C, which is also true in a sense. A medium-sized potato can give us vitamin C, equivalent to the energy needed for half a day. However, the high fat in potato chips diminishes this benefit and should prompt us to consume this culinary joy in moderation.

French fries, the world’s favourite potato snack, were invented in the 20th century. French fries are not French. Belgians, who used to fry potatoes as early as the 1600s, can strongly claim that the French fries are traditionally theirs. In the early 19th century, US President Thomas Jefferson wrote a note about “potatoes deep-fried while raw, in small slices”, but only by the 1850s did French fries capture the imagination and palate of America.

Thousands of professional and amateur cooks continue to re-invent the taste of potatoes in the multitudinous experimental dishes they introduce. How a modest food like potato took over the world and changed presents a prism for us to see the evolution of our civilisation itself.

References

Production volume of potatoes across India from the financial year 2015 to 2020, with an estimate for 2021, statista.com

The ten most important crops In the world, Eric Goldschein, businessinsider.com

The Columbian Exchange: A history of the disease, food, and ideas, Nathan Nunn and Nancy Quian, Journal of Economic Perspectives, scholar.harvard.edu

Foods that changed history, Christopher Cumo, 2015.

Native potatoes from the Andes, Michael Hermann, cipotato.org

Interpreting the Irish famine, 1846-1850, http://xroads.virginia.edu/~Hyper/SADLIER/IRISH/Famine.htm

How the potato changed the world, Charles C. Mann, Smithsonian Magazine.

Food history almanac: Over 1300 years of world culinary history, culture, and social influence, Janet Clarkson, 2014.

The Potato Eaters, 1885 by Van Gogh, vincentvangogh.org

How did French Fries get their name? Here’s all you need to know about the world’s favourite potato snack, Saumya Sharma, hindustantimes.com

Hundred most popular potato dishes in the world, tasteatlas.com

Dr Buchan’s Domestic Medicine: Or, A Treatise on the Prevention and Cure of Diseases by Regimen and Simple Medicines ... To which is Annexed a Complete Family Dispensatory, for the Use of Private Practitioners, William Buchan and J S Forsyth, 1871, Claxton, Remsen & Haffelfinger.