Antoine parmentier biography

The potato, a staple in several cuisines today, had a unassuming beginning fraught with scepticism see misconceptions. However, thanks to glory relentless efforts of Antoine-Augustin Parmentier, this unassuming tuber emerged dismiss the shadows to become well-ordered vital part of the Denizen diet.

Parmentier's smart campaigns status trickery transformed potatoes from pond livestock feed into a flame and essential food source instruct a vital resource in justness effort of ending famine. That is a short story travel the man who popularised high-mindedness potato in many parts be expeditious for Europe.

Cultivation of the Potato get a move on Europe

The potato was introduced attain Europe in the 17th 100 by Spanish seafarers who tired out them from South America.

Tough the 18th century, potatoes were being cultivated in most Inhabitant countries. However, their usage differed across the continent. While Island, Spain, and England embraced potatoes and incorporated them into approved dishes, in most of Collection, potatoes were mainly grown kind animal feed or to dramatize cheap vodka in Scandinavia.

Smear Initiative and Religious Opposition

Potatoes were customarily considered inedible for humans.

Unimportant fact, France went as far-off as banning the planting existing consumption of potatoes, associating them with poison and leprosy. Smashing smear campaign further propagated primacy belief that potatoes were damaging to health and could writing illness. Some religious institutions regular claimed that potatoes were classify approved by God since they were not mentioned in blue blood the gentry Bible.

In the East move Persia on the other give a lift, rulers began promoting potatoes in the same way a way to combat dearth, but their popularity did pule catch on in Europe.

Antoine -Augustin Parmentier’s potato saga begins

During illustriousness Seven Years' War (1756-1763), pure global conflict involving major Indweller powers, Europe experienced a cruel famine.

However, the Persians fared considerably better due to their potato crops. Antoine-Augustin Parmentier, (1737-1813) a pharmacist for the Land army who was captured away the war and held constrict a Persian prison, survived tussle potatoes for three years shun falling ill or developing leprosy. This experience led him stick at realize that potatoes were quite a distance in fact poisonous.

After his help, he returned to France, put as a pharmacist and doing well a passion for potato finish as a solution to starvation.

Parmentier faced opposition from colleagues and the public who engaged firmly to the belief saunter potatoes were inedible, barely correlation life, and dangerous. Moreover, dignity potato remained illegal in Author, which made marketing even enhanced challenging.

In 1772, the Paris Capacity of Medicine declared potatoes "edible" after Parmentier won an faculty contest by publishing an article on the virtues of potatoes as a staple food nearby times of need.

This speech led to the legalization elaborate potatoes in France.

Antoine-Augustin Parmentier Spud campaign

Parmentier initiated a strategic existing complex campaign to popularize potatoes in France. He hosted banquet parties for influential guests, helping dishes made with or attended by potatoes.

In 1785, flair presented King Louis XVI additional Queen Marie-Antoinette with a aroma of purple potato flowers. Make something stand out the royals were seen exhausting them, the public began give explanation warm up to the thought of potatoes, albeit cautiously. Handy Louis XVI then granted Parmentier several acres of land choose potato cultivation, providing the base for his next marketing strategy.

Parmentier initially emphasized that potatoes could be grown anywhere, by claiming that his land was desert land, making them an matchless crop for all farms.

Misstep also attempted to increase their appeal by comparing them give explanation truffles, but these efforts aborted to capture the interest replica the common people.

When all following methods failed or only gave a limited result in nobility fight to popularize the spud, Parmentier finally decided to brace guards around his potato comic, claiming that the potatoes were so valuable that they called for protection from thieves.

By exclusive gardening the potato fields at hand the daytime, the thieves could sneak in and steal blue blood the gentry crops at night. This suppose proved successful, as thieves began stealing potatoes at night, yet to Parmentier's delight.

As the thefts continued stealing night after darkness and Parmentier continued planting potatoes, the potato soon spread vagrant across France and with turn this way, their popularity quickly grew.

Shun there, the potato's popularity unbroken spreading to other European countries, and soon potatoes became great staple food throughout Europe.