From 1748 to 1772, the potato was illegal in France.
A 24-year ban, issued by parliament, against a root vegetable.
The Daily Spud has reviewed the historical record.
The decree
The 1748 ruling officially classified the potato as a threat to public health.
The decree, in language preserved in subsequent historical accounts, asserted that the potato “inflames the humours, corrupts the blood, and causes the leprosy.”
This was the position of an organ of national government, applied uniformly to every kitchen in France.
The evidence
The principal evidentiary basis was visual.
Period herbalists examined the potato and concluded that its lumpy, irregular surface bore a resemblance to the hands of leprosy patients.
This — the resemblance — was the case.
The Daily Spud notes that potatoes do not have hands, but is otherwise reserving comment.
The Devil’s Apple
The visual case was reinforced by three further objections of escalating theological seriousness.
It grew underground.
It belonged to the nightshade family, then associated with witchcraft and consorting with the wrong sort.
It was nowhere mentioned in scripture, a notable omission for a major food crop.
The combined effect was a popular nickname: The Devil’s Apple.
This was not a marketing campaign. This was the operating brand.
Editorial position
The ban was lifted in 1772, the better part of three decades after it began.
It was lifted not because the leprosy theory was disproven — the leprosy theory was never disproven, because there was never a theory — but because France lost faith in it. As France would later lose faith in many other things.
The Daily Spud is monitoring the long restoration of the potato’s reputation in France. We remain, as a matter of editorial policy, optimistic.
Take the pledge. The Spudvolution remembers the Devil’s Apple era and does not forget.