...well...they certainly do have a global reach...they are grown on every continent except antarctica ( and who really know what someone there is doing with hydroponics ) according to the international potato center potato atlas...also according to the atlas, the u.s., india, ukraine, poland, and germany produced a combined 90,202,000 tons of potaoes this year...in the most recent export figures i could find ( from the agricultural economic research review ) for 2005 show a combined world export total of 8,096,000 tons...less than 10 percent of the crop of just five producers this year...so where do all those spuds go? lots are transformed into fries and chips and the ubiquitous cafeteria tater tots and most are sold whole in supermarkets...the leopold center for sustainable agriculture says that potatoes in the u.s. travel between 75 and 1155 food miles form producer to plate...compared to global food exports it seems spuds mostly stay close to home...they are remarkably easy to grow...cut them into pieces , each with an eye, and callous for a couple of days before planting, throw in some weeding, hilling, and water when it's dry and in 90 to 120 days you have tasty and nutritious tubers...no wonder they have gone global ( and the tax man can tax a silo full of wheat but he has to dig around to find the tubers )...i found a source of locally grown seed potatoes for the community garden and my back yard last season so our potatoes will be inside the 75 mile range..i still have potatoes that i harvested in august keeping well in my basement ( along with the potato storage project ) nutritious, local, easy to preserve...expanded production for local use...a harbinger of localization...it's not a perfect world and potatoes aren't a perfect food...but you'll still have to look around for a better one...the bottom photo is of a lambs quarters' seed head from september...a relative of quinoa, i will, if all goes well, be interested in seeing the similarities and differences between the cousins next autumn.
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