The Powerful Potato
Who gives any thought to the lowly and humble potato? Sure, we eat lots of
potato chips and french fries, even mashed, baked, au gratin and scalloped
potatoes. We use the phrase "meat and potatoes" as complementary, but
we think more about the meat than the potato. We have "pasta bars" and
"pasta restaurants" opening all over, but do we have "potato bars" or
"potato restaurants"? And those concerned about their weight might even
avoid potatoes thinking that they are fattening.
The truth is the potato has played a dramatic and decisive role in modern
history, far exceeding almost every other food. The lowly potato is not lowly
at all, but very powerful. Let me tell you the true story of "the Powerful
Potato.”
The potato comes from the highlands of Peru and Bolivia and was
domesticated by the Native Americans some 2,000 years ago. It became
the staple food of the agricultural system of the Incas. There are hundreds
of varieties of potatoes.
The story of Francisco Pizarro and the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire
is well known. It was in 1533 that Pizarro treacherously captured their ruler,
had his person ransomed by an equal weight in gold and silver, and then
strangled him. It is one to those supreme ironies of history that what the
Spanish valued—gold—was not as precious or powerful as the seemingly
insignificant potato.
Forty years later the potato was being grown in Spain. We all remember
1588 as the date of the defeat of the Spanish Armada, but we should also
remember 1573, when the potato crossed the Atlantic Ocean. In a modest
and secret way, it began a career that was to change the power dynamics of
Europe and in the process feed hundreds of millions of people, mostly small
farmers and peasants of humble means.
Within a decade, the potato jumped over France to Switzerland and the low
countries. This small leap was a great blessing to the potato because it
loved a cool and moist climate—remember its home was the highlands of
Peru, and it required a cool growing season (61 to 64 F), and it liked sandy
and indifferent soil as well as the richest loam. The potato is a tuber and
grows beneath the soil and so was not as vulnerable to diseases as the
grains—wheat, barley and oats.
The potato in time ousted grain as the major food crop of Northern Europe.
Its cultivation spread east across the great European plain—across
Germany, then into Denmark and Sweden, and into Poland and across
Russia, loving these places as if it were back in Peru. It was an
uncomplicated plant to cultivate, and in these countries, it was exceptionally
reliable.
As wonderful as these blessings were, they did not constitute the potato's
greatest blessing. The inexpensive potato is almost the perfect food. It is
the perfect food with milk. A diet of milk and potatoes supplies all the
nutrients the human body needs. The potato is 85% starch (carbohydrates)
and 15% protein. It has a considerable amount of vitamin C; it also has
niacin, riboflavin, thiamin, calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus,
potassium, and sodium. It is not fattening (unless soaked in butter, oil, or
gravy), and a 6-8 ounce potato contains fewer than 100 calories. Because
of the potato, the health of the lower classes of northern Europe improved
significantly and life expectancy increased.
So, in the period 1650 to 1800, the volume of potatoes grew astronomically.
Acreage that could barely support a family could now support many families.
In the early 1700's, the potato crossed the North Sea into England,
Scotland, and Wales. It loved these countries just as well as the
Netherlands and Germany. Then it jumped the Irish Sea and became so
important in Ireland that it became known as the "Irish Potato." Immigrants
brought the potato from Europe to North America in 1700, and by 1719, it
was being grown in volume in New Hampshire. It made its home here and
today we identify potatoes from Maine and Idaho. So, the potato had
recrossed the Atlantic Ocean.
In the 1500's, the most populated and economically powerful countries of
Europe were in and around the Mediterranean–Spain, Italy, and France.
Their population and economic power supported great armies.
In the period 1700 to 1850, the populations of the countries of Northern
Europe doubled, tripled, even quadrupled. By 1850, Russia was the most
populated European country and Germany had half again as many people as
France. Great Britain, a country of 2,000,000 in 1500, had become a nation
of 25,000,000 in 1850, and from an agricultural country, it became the
leading industrial power.
—Larry Schaefer
Lake Country Institute