Events, including the encouragement to eat potatoes, are best understood when they are seen as part of larger sets of ideas, rather than as singularities. The pan-European potato vogue reflected the new political importance that eating acquired during the Enlightenment, as politicians and philosophers began to link individual diets to the strength and wealth of nations. They framed this debate within a language of choice and the individual pursuit of happiness. The connections between everyday life, individualism and the state forged in the late eighteenth century, of which the history of the potato’s emergence as an Enlightenment super-food forms a part, continue to shape today’s debates about how to balance personal dietary freedom with the health of the body politic. The potato’s history also reminds us not to overlook the contributions of small-scale agriculture to the larger history of innovation and change. Recognising peasant contributions to the history of the potato is not simply a matter of historical justice. It is also relevant for our future. Biodiversity is today identified as an essential component of both long-term environmental sustainability and global food security.

The potato’s political invisibility ended in the eighteenth century, when it attained unprecedented political prominence. The nourishing qualities that had once drawn criticism began to be viewed more positively. As a result, the potato became the object of intense scientific and political interest across Europe, as officials, local societies, agronomists, priests and many other organisations and individuals promoted potato consumption in word and deed. This extensive, pan-European potato investigation and propaganda resulted in the publication of hundreds of texts extolling the potato’s potential as a superior staple for working people, one whose greater consumption would help ensure the strength and success of the nation. Its popularity reflected the emergence of the new models of political economy and governance that stressed the importance of a healthy, well-nourished population to the power and wealth of the state. Integrating the slower history of the potato’s conquest of European dietaries, discussed in , with its frenetic promotion in the eighteenth century illuminates the central role that food came to play in modern models of statecraft.