The Year of the Potato
Friday May 16, 2008
Did you know that the United Nations has declared 2008 as the Year of the Potato?! The Year of the Potato has its own website and the UN, especially in light of the developing global food crisis, has recommended that poorer countries grow more potatoes as a great source of protein, carbohydrates, and vitamins. The UN's blog, UN Dispatch led me to the magic of the potato. What are your thoughts on this tuber?
Comments
Given the typical outcomes of UN-inspired actives, the UN’s Year of the Potato will probably result in the modern equivalent of the Irish Potato famine.
The potato is a remarkable thing, as it has been a staple food in places as far from each other as the Peruvian Andes and Ireland!
We here in the state of Idaho are pleased that the value of our State Vegetable is being recognized. Boiled and baked are better than fries in their nutritional value for benefits to human health. Here’s Spud to you.
The collegge where I teach is built on former potato fields. Our logo includes a stylized potato flower and our mascot is Mr. PotatoHead in various forms(I have a Mr. PotatoHead Spiderman on my desk!) Mc Spud travels the world with our staff and faculty. I was honored to take him to Peru-the birthplace of the potato! In Minnesota, on the Anoka Sand Plain, we raised enough potatoes in the 1920s to feed half the nation…
The UN is indeed smart to understand the benefits of the potato—-we do.
The potato can help against global warming. It can be grown at high altitudes and talks little water, as opposed to the other staple starch, rice. Rice paddies contribute a lot of methane, a greenhouse gas, to the atmosphere. The good old potato has a lot going for it. It is not affected by bad weather, such as wind or hail, as it is underground. However, persuading people to eat it is another thing. Lack of eating potatoes contributed to the French revolution. The people had no bread due to several years of poor wheat harvests, and although King Louis ate potatoes himself in an attempt to promote it as an alternative food, those stubborn French peasants refused to give up their bread. I don’t know whether the Asian cultures that rely heavily on rice, will accept the potato.
The potato will difinatly help the future generation by providing food for the poor people like in India where most of the population lives under the poverty line .
Potato is a food of present and future it can be grown in different climatic situations like that are found on the high altitudes