October 27: National Potato Day
October 27 is national potato day.
Although we often associate the potato with the Irish potato famine which began in 1845, there were no potatoes in Europe until after the Spanish encountered them in 1532. Indigenous to Peru, individuals can get all of the nutrients they need from a diet of potatoes and drinking milk. However, the nutritional value—as well as flavor—of modern potatoes has deteriorated.
As Charles C. Mann explains, “The potato Andeans roasted before contact with Europeans was not the modern spud; they cultivated different varieties at different altitudes. Most people in a village planted a few basic types, but most everyone also planted others to have a variety of tastes. (Andean farmers today produce modern, Idaho-style breeds for the market, but describe them as bland—for yahoos in cities.) The result was chaotic diversity. Potatoes in one village at one altitude could look wildly unlike those a few miles away in another village at another altitude.” In fact, over 5,000 varieties of potatoes have been preserved.
When the potato reached Europe, it was not initially embraced. According to Linda Stradley, “Wherever the potato was introduced, it was considered weird, poisonous, and downright evil. In France and elsewhere, the potato was accused of causing not only leprosy, but also syphilis, narcosis, scronfula, early death, sterility, and rampant sexuality, and of destroying the soil where it grew.”
Rulers had to bribe, trick, or otherwise encourage reluctant peasants to grow the food. One trick used was devised by Antoine August Parmentier. He planted a plot of potatoes which he had guarded during the day, but was lax about guarding the plot at night. As he predicted, the local peasants assumed that anything that was being guarded so closely must be valuable and therefore stole the potatoes at night.
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Potatoes are the largest commodity crop in Michigan where more than 735,000 pounds are harvested each year. Michigan also leads the national for producing potatoes for potato chips.
–Steven L. Berg, PhD
Photo Caption: The Michigan Purple was bred by Dr. David Douches at Michigan State University. It is one of several potatoes that have been commercially released by MSU’s Potato Breeding and Genetics Program.
Although Today in History is primarily student written, there are some days when we do not have a student author. You will enjoy another student entry tomorrow.
Haley Hilt 
Jennifer Kuebler 
Megan Villareal 
Gary L. Johnson
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