So an Irishman and an Englishman walked into a restaurant... and they began arguing over a potato....

When describing the impact of the potato in Europe, Pollan emphasizes the conflict it created between the Irish and the English when the potato was introduced to both of them. The potato was a “grey” factor for both-A good thing- a sort of salvation for the hungry and poor, while it created an impulsive and tragic frenzy The English, who saw themselves as a “civilized’ group, the ones in controlled, the ones who were right. They saw and managed their food the same way: ordered, controlled, “industrial” in a way. They saw themselves and their way they controlled their food as safe from nature unpredictability; to the point of being almost self-reliant. They were used to be the ones in control, to be in order. . For the Irish, who struggled with lack of food and lack of land and resources, the potato gave them “control over their lives”- while making them dependent on nature.
The issue with the potato became struggle that also dealt with the stability of an economy. It was more of an issue of control and order than of food choices. Bread was the food that, up till the potato showed up, kept the workers working for it, “the population in check” to keep it accessible to everyone. The potato changed that for the Irish, because it was easy and non-expensive to grow and a two step away, either boiled or baked, to eat. The English relied on the plants or food that demanded work and almost a sort of mechanic production like the wheat- the planting, cutting, turning into flour and then used to make bread; and that it brought profit. The potato was “a you grow it, and you eat it” food at the time, and the English couldn’t make a profit out of it. So the potato became a threat to the English hold on the Irish, as Pollan describes the negative English reception to the potato as a “Evil” or “damned root” the food that drove people “down and away from civilization”.
Both the English and their Irish “root” for their choice food: the English with the bread (the wheat), The Irish with the potato. They also became the two extremes on the scale- the English too tight, too conservative and efficient with the bread and its preparation process; the Irish with the lack of resources, the neediness, the conformity, the “seize the moment” opportunity that the potato provided, because they were that hungry and that desperate to some measure of stability and reliance independent of the English; but they embraced the potato too much without thinking ahead, without making second plans that would allowed them to keep on relying on the potato.
So in a way the potato was a catalyst for the two groups to change their ways: For the english to be more flexible and accept an opportunity that could benefits them and those they were “in charge” off; and for the Irish to develop a method to be able to keep on taking advantage of a food that became in europe, distinctly their.