Introduction

Food is one of the cultural universals across the world. Biologically, everybody must eat, and everybody must drink. This biological drive has created one of the greatest cultural products in human history: food culture. The development of food culture has become one of the defining features of being culturally human. It is so much a part of our biology and our social identity that most people do not give a second thought to the origins of how food identity became integrated with societal identity. Modern social theory, or the theory that explains modern behaviors, is one of the best explanation for how food identity exists, and why many of the institutions and productions of certain food have been driven by eating and drinking as a society (Colás 1). Without the drive to eat as a society, many of the food cultures around the world would be very different. Specifically, the drive to eat the potato has had one of the biggest impacts on food culture around the world and is deeply tied into modern social theory. What exactly are the cultural impacts of the potato on human societies around the world? The potato has had the greatest impact in Europe and America, impacting my own family history. I would not be here writing this paper if it were not for the potato, therefore understanding the potato’s history is understanding my own. To understand how it became so impactful in Europe, America, and to myself, we have to understand its origins. Starting from its origins and its cultural impact on pre-Inca and Inca societies, the Columbian Exchange, and then leading to the devastating impact of the Irish potato famine and lastly, views on the nutrition of the potato, this paper follows the journey of the potato and will reveal how it has become one of the world’s most popular vegetables, and how the potato has had an impact on political and cultural divides around the world.

The Potato and the Inca

The potato began its journey as a staple food of the pre-Incas and Incas about “8,000 years ago. Archeological and genetic evidence indicates that the domestication of the potato [happened] on the border of present-day Peru and Bolivia” (De Jong 416). There is an understanding that the domesticated potato began to have significance not only to the food production of the pre-Inca and Inca societies but also had an enormous impact on their population growth. “There are only broad-ranging estimates of the population, most of which are in the 6-14 million range [Dunnell 2012] for which the potato served as a major food” (417). Without the domestication of the potato as an easy-to-cook crop, the population would not have soared and eventually it helped shape their culture. As the population grew, the people recognized the importance of potatoes in their food and health and included them in various cultural rituals. The cultural and ritual practices involving the potato include eating “freeze-dried potato (chuño), as well as [creating] funeral vases in the form of potatoes [that] were sometimes placed in tombs along with the bodies of the departed” (417). The potato had such cultural significance that “two of the deities, [such as] Axomama, were dedicated to the potato” (417). Humans are spiritual, with archeological burials and pottery containing some of the most significant evidence of spiritual thinking. The fact that there are funeral ornaments and even goddesses in the form of a potato found in various archaeological excavations shows that the potato began to have cultural significance in the development of pre-Inca and Incan societies. None of this could have happened without the careful knowledge of breeding and domesticating this nutritious and potentially delicious vegetable. The cultural significance of the potato did not remain only within the pre-Incan and Incan societies. As time passed and the Columbian Exchange began, the rest of the world was introduced to the potato, and its cultural significance spread.

The Irish Potato Famine: Part 1

The Irish Potato Famine was an unfortunate period in Europe where significant loss of life occurred due to political reasons and almost the total reliance on the potato as a crop for food, nutrients, and income. After the potato had entered Europe during the Columbian Exchange, the United Kingdom began adopting the vegetable as part of their daily diet over the next few centuries. Ireland was still a part of the United Kingdom, not gaining their independence until “December 6, 1921, when representatives of the two states signed the Anglo-Irish Treaty” (A Guide). Due to British control, “absentee landowners, many of whom lived in England, owned much of the best Irish agricultural land. With the decisions about what to grow in Ireland being made in England, Ireland was in effect an agricultural colony of England” (De Jong 422). With very little control over their lands, the Irish had no choice but to dedicate the lands to British control, who eventually decided it would be the place of potato production within the United Kingdom. The potato became the predominant crop on the island, and eventually, “around the world it became known as the Irish potato” (422). This eventual turnaround of having the potato as the main crop grown in and exported from Ireland had a huge impact on the population and culture of Ireland. Due to potatoes' nutritional qualities, the population “nearly tripled from about 3 million in 1750 to over 8 million in 1841” (422). Eventually, this population would bust at the start of the famine, and there were cultural reasons for the devastating population decline.

The Irish Potato Famine: Part 2

In order to understand in part why the potato blight was so catastrophic in Ireland, it is essential to understand the cultural tensions between the Irish and the British, especially during the Victorian times in which the potato famine occurred. For years, Ireland and Britain had deeply rooted racial tensions. For example, “in the early-Victorian period, racial contrasts and stereotyping were consistently employed to frame and maintain Irish and British identities. In many Famine-era periodicals, Ireland’s misery was presented as ultimately the product of her Celtic identity. Her only salvation, it was believed, lay in Anglicization” (De Nie 27). In essence, Irish identity was considered “other” and not “British” enough, or in other words, not civilized enough. These tensions set Ireland apart from British culture, but the British controlled Ireland’s lands. England had firm control over Irish crops, and with peasants needing to work the farms, the potato became the main crop for which they received not only nutrients but also income. The tensions compounded the devastating losses beyond just the potato blight itself, with British racism playing a huge role. “Irish ignorance was revealed, above all, by their dependence on the potato. Many members of the press believed that the supposedly primitive method of potato cultivation in ‘lazy beds’ and the small amount of skill and labor necessary to feed a family reinforced the ‘natural’ Irish tendencies towards indolence, subdivision, and agrarian crime. The potato, it was believed, had destroyed the Irish work ethic” (29). This ignorance of Irish intelligence and farming set the stage for disaster when the famine hit. The very crop the British practically forced the Irish to grow almost exclusively was now being used against them in a very significant time of need due to their “other” race and intelligence. The famine hit when “the late blight disease attacked the crop for several successive years in the 1840’s…[resulting] in the death of more than one million from starvation and associated diseases such as cholera and typhus” (De Jong 422). Much of this could have been prevented had the British not forced the Irish to grow potatoes as the main crop, and had racial tensions not existed at all. It took time, but “the need to import grain to relieve the disastrous situation in Ireland forced the British government, after much debate and political upheaval,.. to embrace free trade” meaning that the British government was unwilling to allow free trade between the two countries during the famine and much of the reasoning can be tied back to the racist views about the Irish population (422). 

Potatoes: What's the Big Deal?

The potato played an invaluable role in maintaining populations in various places worldwide, including the pre-Inca, Inca, and Irish populations. It has also shaped and changed the cultural identities of these various nations throughout history. The potato is popular and good for human health. It “is the world’s most popular vegetable because most people find its taste appealing, it is a satisfying comfort food, and it is inexpensive and readily available year-round” (Jansky et al. 95). On top of just being tasty, “as a vegetable, potato is also an excellent source of dietary fiber, vitamin C, vitamin B6, potassium, magnesium, iron, carotenoids, and phenolic acids” (95). This would explain the Inca’s practical worship of the crop and the British demands to make Ireland the UK's potato farming country. It has significant nutritional and caloric value and was invaluable in making the world population grow in Europe and the Americas. That said, as the potato entered the world of modern fast food, “potato consumption has been declining in Europe and North America. In the U.S., potato consumption increased steadily during the latter part of the twentieth century, but then experienced a sharp decline that has only recently began to level off” (95). Potatoes' drop in popularity can be attributed to a couple of factors, one being that the “consumer interest in the nutritional value of foods in increasing” and with the rise of fast food during the latter half of the 20th century, the “potato was [enduring] negative press” (96). However, despite the negative press, the value of the potato in modern society can still be felt. There are results of numerous studies showing the value the potato still has on our overall health. For example, “anti-inflammatory compounds in potato, including resistant starch, fiber and anthocyanins, can contribute to gut health and reduce chronic diseases, such as inflammatory bowel disease. Fermentable resistant starch can also improve colon health and reduce the incidence of colon cancer” (96). While the potato may have gotten a bad rap in the last few decades, consuming potatoes in moderation can have numerous health benefits, as proven by the enormous increases in populations wherever the potato was being cultivated. It will continue to provide health and caloric benefits to those in developed and developing nations.