Thursday, May 6, 2010

5 Interesting Facts

  • Potatoes were not always loved. After they were brought to Europe they were seen as food for the underclass. This was due because of their relationship to poisonous plants, if let in the sun for too long the potato turns green on top of having a bitter taste they would make some people ill.
  • Potatoes became popular until Antoine August Parmentier with a skillful plan made them popular. Parmentier got a piece of land and planted potatoes by day he would have the field guarded. Leading to people becoming very curious and making them steal this valuable vegetable.
  • The first people to accept the potato however were the Irish because they were able to plant them in abundance due to their climate. However this lead to the potato famine.
“The Secret History of French Fries.” http://www.stim.com/Stim-x/9.2/fries/fries-09.2.html (accessed May 6, 2010)

  • Developing countries have recently increased in potato production which I believe is due to the amount of nutrition the potatoes provide and also possibly because of their popularity world wide.
  • Even though Asia/Oceania have the largest population and are the largest potato producing areas, they do not even eat half the amount that the Europe or North America regions eat. Europe stands at 87.8 kg per capita while North America is 60.0 kg per capita.
“Potato World.” International Year of the Potato 2008.
http://www.potato2008.org/en/world/index.html (accessed May 6, 2010)

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