The humble potato has come a long way

IN 1852, Karl Marx described the peasantry as a sack of potatoes. The fickle attitude of farmers towards the short-lived Paris Commune had irked the old revolutionary. He would be a little less condescending towards peasants, elsewhere. But according to all evidence never thought it necessary to redeem himself with potatoes.

The potato has been hated and loved, hated and loved again. Its detractors include people as diverse as 17th century Scottish evangelicals and the 18th century American labour leader William Corbett. Charles Darwin sang its praise and Thomas Malthus thought the tuber could overturn his theory of population. In our times, the Zapatista rebels in Mexico fancy the spud as much as the fast food chain, McDonald