Boiled, chipped, mashed, roasted, baked...the humble potato is now so ubiquitous it seems odd to think that until the sixteenth century it was unknown outside South America. It was the Inca civilisation in Peru who first cultivated tubers of the genus Solanum, the forebear of the modern potato, in large scale agricultural practices in their Cuzco valley. They discovered that those crops thrived in the Peruvian Andes, and the potato became embedded in their culture, used not only for food, but also as a trading currency. It was represented in their art and pottery and in their daily lives. An example of this, often quoted, is that they measured time by how long it took for potatoes to cook. Without their idea and tenacity, the rest of the world may never have enjoyed this most versatile of vegetables. 

Sir Walter Raleigh is credited as being the first person to bring potatoes to the British Isles after he returned from a voyage to the New World, and indeed he is known to have planted seed potatoes in his estate in Cork, and to have presented the fruits of his crop to Queen Elizabeth 1. However, it is likely that the Spanish Conquistadors of South America were the ones who introduced the vegetable to Europe as a whole. The Spanish sailors needed sustenance on their long and often hazardous voyages and discovered that the potato was hardy and also had properties that helped the sailors to avoid the disease scurvy.  

Initially, potatoes were viewed with suspicion by some because they were members of the Nightshade class of plants; and because they grew underground they were nicknamed ‘the devil’s apples’. At first they were grown across Europe in herbal gardens merely for their flowers and as foodstuff for domestic animals; but in the late 1700s when famine, and a climate change designated ‘The last ice age’ occurred simultaneously and caused native crops to fail across Europe, the Governments of France, Germany and the Netherlands decided to invest in potato fields and increased production began. Potatoes seemed more resilient to disease than other plants although they were still deemed as being food for the lower classes rather than something to be enjoyed by the rich. 

Conversely, the tragedy of the Irish potato famines illustrates the risk of relying too much on that one seemingly stable foodstuff. Ireland was the first country to cultivate potatoes on a wide scale; and as their population increased, their dependence on potatoes was so great that when the ‘Great Frost’ destroyed the potato crops in the years 1740-1741, it is estimated that almost 20% of the population died from starvation and concomitant illnesses. The ‘Great Famine’ or ‘Great Hunger’ of 1845-1852, which was caused by a disease that blighted the potato crops, was equally devastating, and exacerbated the bitter disputes between Ireland and its rulers in England which would ultimately cause a breakdown between those two factions of the United Kingdom and lead to independence for the Republic. As Redcliffe N. Salaman wrote perspicaciously: 'the potato ended in wrecking both exploited and exploiter’..(1) 

As its popularity grew in Ireland, so it also increased in the rest of the Britain and potato fields were established in England, primarily in Lancashire and around London, to complement the imports from Ireland. In 1797 Sir Frederick Eden, a pioneer of social investigation, wrote that potatoes had become ‘a constant standing dish... at the tables of the Rich, as well as the Poor.’ (2) 

By the 19th century potato farming had become widespread across much of Europe. In Britain, especially, the potato provided cheap and nutritious sustenance for workers in the new factories which sprang up in the wake of the Industrial Revolution and as the urban population expanded, fuelled by potatoes, so did manufacturing. So much so that the Marxist philosopher Friedrich Engels asserted that the potato was: ‘the equal of iron for its historically revolutionary role.’ 

It is believed that potatoes were first introduced to Africa in the late 1500s; and into Asia in the 1600s. In China, the Imperial Family considered them a delicacy. Potato farming in North America started relatively late; the first recorded crop was in New Hampshire in 1719, with seed potatoes brought from Ireland, and were known, fittingly, as ‘Irish potatoes.’ Today, the United States is one of the leading producers of potatoes, along with India and China. (3) The EU is also a major exporter, trading between their countries and wider global communities. The potato trade is worth billions of pounds to these countries, not only to the farmers that grow them, but also the accompanying industries that process them in multifarious ways and their investment in the machinery needed to do so; and the wider food outlets that utilise them for their customers. 

The potato is not without its detractors. In recent times, due to over indulgence in chips, it has been blamed for contributing to the world wide obesity crisis and also linked to Type 2 diabetes because of the high carbohydrate and glycemic index levels in the vegetables which means that our bodies absorb them quickly and that can result in us having elevated blood sugar levels. However, medical studies have shown that a balanced diet including potatoes that are not cooked in fats is generally beneficial because of the essential minerals, vitamins, and fibre they contain.  

New strains of potatoes have been developed down the centuries by mixing the genes of wild tubers with mainstream ones and agriculturalists continue to strive to produce hardy varieties that are resistant to diseases and to our world’s ongoing climate crisis. The latest variant Cip-Matilde, announced in 2021, is thought to be able to almost completely withstand blight, and to tolerate frost, drought or temperature changes. (4) 

So the potato continues to thrive and to feed many, and the socio-economic impact of its global cultivation will continue to be felt by generations to come. 

(1) The History and Social Influence of the potato (Cambridge with London Press 1948) 

(2) The State of the Poor (3 Volumes: 1797) 

(3) The Untold History of the potato – John Reader (Vintage 2009) 

(4) Potato Marketing Board