The United Nations has hailed the potato as a potential solution to solving the looming global food shortage.
With wheat and rice supplies declining, the UN is encouraging low-income countries to grow more potatoes to cover the food shortfall.
It’s also declared 2008 as the International Year of the Potato to try and raise awareness of how important the humble spud is to agriculture and the economy.
The International Year of the Potato also happens to have a fantastic website, from which I learned many facts dispelling my previous assumption that the potato consisted simply of “empty carbs.” For instance,
They have the highest protein content (around 2.1 percent on a fresh weight basis) in the family of root and tuber crops, and protein of a fairly high quality, with an amino-acid pattern that is well matched to human requirements. They are also very rich in vitamin C – a single medium-sized potato contains about half the recommended daily intake – and contain a fifth of the recommended daily value of potassium.
Nutritious, delicious, and potentially life-saving.