The Politics of the Potato

“What if the healthiest and most beneficial foods were also the tastiest? This is exactly what advocates of the potato claimed in the eighteenth century. Just as the framers of the new discipline of political economy believed that, ultimately, there was no conflict between allowing individuals to conduct their own economic affairs and the well-being of the larger economic whole, so potato-promoters maintained that the potatoes required to build a strong and prosperous state were the very thing that poor people would themselves choose to eat. All that was needed was an educational campaign and an increase in availability.” (Feeding the People, p. 80)

The potato in the late 18th century was viewed as a saving food that would nourish poor people who couldn't afford the cost of wheat bread. When Ireland adopted the potato and consequently experienced a population explosion, there was rejoicing at this effect. But then came the potato blight, the resulting famine, and the view that potato consumption was a disaster. Eventually, the perceived value of the potato went up again. In any case, the potato was highly politicized throughout its history in Europe.

In the early days after the discovery of the potato in the New World, potatoes were sort of a stealth vegetable in Europe. While many earlier historians reported that the potato was virtually unused there before the end of the 18th century, and that in fact people refused to eat it in many places, author Rebecca Earle, in a new book called Feeding the People: The Politics of the Potato, finds new information in sources such as town and church records, cookbooks, and tax rolls, rather than in standard historic writings.

Potatoes were cultivated long before receiving official recognition. They were peasant food, grown in household gardens in a number of parts of Europe from the early introduction of New World foodstuffs. Personal gardens were an important source of nutrition for peasants and lower class workers because they weren't taxed or tithed. The frequently stated claim that potatoes were only accepted as food long after other New World foods like chocolate doesn't hold up to Earle's scrutiny. I particularly liked her contradiction of the often-repeated belief that because potatoes appear similar to deformed human body parts, people in the 16th through 18th centuries thought they would cause leprosy. This is fanciful! Only one source, a speculative one at that, cites any evidence for this claim, and it doesn't seem to have any actual base in historic reality.

Potato cultivation, in short, started much earlier than previous writers believed. For example:

“Like title disputes and herbals, printed and manuscript cookery books indicate that new-world roots were being cultivated on a small scale for domestic use in parts of Germany, England and elsewhere. As one 1651 cookbook from the Saxon city of Braunschweig noted, ‘earth-artichokes or roots … have become so common that practically every farmer grows them in his garden.' By the early eighteenth century, German cookery books often distinguished explicitly between different new-world tubers, and made clear that in some regions the ordinary potato was ‘quite common.’ As the century progressed, potato recipes could be found in ever-more published and manuscript recipe collections from many different parts of Europe.” (p. 36)

“Even in areas where potato cultivation began later, in the eighteenth century, villagers and peasants were often the first to raise the crop. This was for instance the case in Galicia, in southern Poland, where potatoes were grown in peasant gardens before they were introduced into the kitchens of landed estates.” (p. 44)

Illustration of an Itinerant Potato Seller,
18th century England, p. 39

Theories about potato consumption appeared quite a bit after the actual consumption of this vegetable. Some writers predicted that potatoes would not only provide good nutrition, but also inspire happiness in those who ate them. Happiness turns out to have been a very important topic in 18th century political thought. How can the population be made happier and more productive? Or to be more exact, how can peasants' happiness be manipulated to make the populace more productive for the benefit of the rulers? “Potatoes, happiness and the business of statecraft were bound together in the language of political economy.” (p. 103)

Earle cites numerous famous writers who proposed that eating potatoes would vastly improve the condition of the poor, and thus make them better -- and happier -- citizens or subjects. For example:

“Count Rumford reminded readers that since schemes to encourage potato consumption aimed ultimately to improve the well-being of the working poor, they were by definition of interest to ‘enlightened statesmen.’” (p. 73)

“William Buchan, the Scottish physician and advocate of potato gardens, encapsulated the happy situation resulting from greater potato consumption: ‘men would multiply, and poverty, unless among the profligate, be unknown.’” (p. 81)

Count Rumford (1753-1814), among his many accomplishments, was an advocate of soup kitchens to feed the poor, and he invented several variants of a now-famous recipe for nourishing soup. Variations of this soup were served to needy people, with flavors designed to please the different ethnic groups in Italy, Spain, and England. 

As with earlier eras, Earle's discussion of the 19th and 20th centuries details many facts about the uses of the potato and attitudes towards its production and consumption. Throughout the book, the topics of potato cultivation and culinary uses illustrate how food played a central role in politics, political theory, and political discussions. Very interesting! In the past, I have read a number of books on the history of the potato, most notably that by Redcliffe Salaman, The History and Social Influence of the Potato, and The Potato: How the Humble Spud Rescued the Western World by Larry Zuckerman. It’s impressive how different Earle’s approach to this food history is from the others. All in all,  Feeding the People: The Politics of the Potato is a great book, well worth reading. It even includes recipes!

Review © 2020 mae sander.