The family of “The Great Elector” of Prussia inspecting the potatoes in the palace garden.*
The potato has played an integral role in food security during times of want and political turmoil around the world.
After the potato arrived on the European continent in the late 1500s, it took a couple of centuries until it was finally accepted as a staple food for human consumption. There were several reasons for this long delay, including the tuber’s initial lack of adaptation to long growing days, the historical three-year crop rotation system into which the potato did not fit—and superstition.
Eventually, the potato received help from several governments of the day, including Frederick William’s, “The Great Elector” (1620 to 1688) of Prussia. A century later, again in Prussia, Frederick the Great (1712 to 1786) ordered his subjects to grow and eat potatoes. When one town refused—the inhabitants complained that not even the dogs would eat potatoes—he threatened to cut off their ears and noses. There is no evidence that the threat was ever carried out.
It was during the Seven Years War (1756 to 1763), which pitted Prussia against France, that the advantages of growing potatoes became more apparent. Unlike cereal crops, which could be burned or trampled by marauding armies, the potato crop remained in the ground to be harvested after the armies had left.
The Potato in France
In no other country was there more intrigue surrounding the potato than in France. The crop was probably already grown in the 17th century by religious dissidents such as the Anabaptists (Mennonites) in the Alsace region. The revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, which led to the emigration of several progressive protestant farming groups including Huguenots and Anabaptists, resulted in a loss of agricultural technology in France, likely including potato cultivation.
However, in 1755 the Acadian Expulsion resulted in some refugees departing Canada altogether and returning to their ancestral homeland of France. There is virtually no public memory of the monumental accomplishments of pioneering humble and hard-working farmers regarding potatoes. Jean-Henri Fabre’s well-known quote about the origin of wheat (“History celebrates the battlefields whereon we meet our death, but scorns to speak of the plowed fields whereby we thrive; it knows the names of kings’ bastards but cannot tell us the origin of wheat. This is the way of human folly”) is equally applicable to potatoes!
In the end, it was the scheming pharmacist Antoine-Augustin Parmentier who is publicly credited with the introduction of the potato to France. Parmentier had been a prisoner of war in Prussia for several years during the Seven Years War, and credited the potato for his survival. Upon his return to France in 1763 Parmentier used every opportunity to promote it.
Statue of Antoine-Augustin Parmentier in Montdidier, France.
Credit: Office de tourisme, copyright OTSI Montdidier, France
It is no wonder, considering the potato’s great versatility and nutritive value, that in history it has often become the “bread of the poor.”
Parmentier wrote several articles and tracts, including a prize-winning essay in which he extolled the virtues of the potato which, in times of need, could be substituted for the more usual foods, such as grains. In the turbulent years leading up to the French Revolution, Parmentier was an influential figure at the court of King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette. Potatoes were on the royal menu, and it was said that Marie Antoinette wore potato flowers in her hair. Parmentier also obtained the king’s permission to plant a field of potatoes on the western edge of Paris. As harvest time approached, he shrewdly had the field guarded by soldiers during the day, but he removed them at night. This predictably raised the profile of this strange crop in the minds of the local population. The curiosity created during the day led to the intended thievery at night!
In 1778, Prussia, still under Frederick the Great, was again at war, this time with Austria (War of the Bavarian Succession, 1778 to 1779, also known as the Potato War). The opposing generals limited their strategic measures to preventing the enemy from access to their food supply. The war ended when all the locally available potatoes had been consumed.
The Potato in Ireland
It was in Ireland where the potato adapted most rapidly. This was due both to favorable climatic as well as socio-economic conditions. Much of the best Irish agricultural land was owned by absentee landowners, many of whom lived in England. With the decisions about what to grow in Ireland being made in England, Ireland was, in effect, an agricultural colony of England. The primary crop grown in Ireland was grain, which was exported to England—even during the famine years. Thus, the potato quickly became a staple food for the large Irish families who only had a very small amount of land from which to extract a living. Very quickly, the potato became so interwoven with the lives of the Irish that around the world it became known as the “Irish potato.”
The famine monument in Dublin is one of many memorials around the world which commemorate An Gorta Mór and the brave Irish people.
Credit: Photo courtesy of Debbie and Hamish Jones
The dependence of the Irish population on the potato became so great that when late blight attacked the crop for several successive years in the 1840s, the result was the catastrophic Irish Potato Famine—An Gorta Mór, “The Great Hunger.” At the time, British economic policy was dominated by a laissez-faire philosophy, which in turn delayed relief efforts.
The famine resulted in the deaths of more than one million people from starvation and associated diseases such as cholera and typhus. At least another million Irish refugees emigrated, mostly to North America. Many of the ships (run by profiteers) were overcrowded and lacked proper provisions for food and sanitation. When these “coffin ships” landed, the surviving passengers were placed in quarantine stations, which became virtual islands of death. The largest Canadian quarantine station was at Grosse Île, Québec, where more than 5,000 immigrants died. The Celtic cross is part of the Grosse Île memorial.
Celtic cross at the former quarantine station on Grosse Île, Québec.
Photo courtesy of P. Gauthier, Parks Canada
It is no wonder, considering the potato’s great versatility and nutritive value, that in history it has often become the “bread of the poor.”
Hielke De Jong is a retired Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada potato breeder, consultant and co-author of The Complete Book of Potatoes: What Every Grower and Gardener Needs to Know.
*“The Great Elector”: Engraving by Knackfusz. Source: W. Völksen, Auf den Spuren der Kartoffel in Kunst und Literatur, p. 30. Gieseking, Bielefeld.
