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The History of Potatoes: the origin, the world-wide travel, the subsequent fame. #potatohistory | Authentic Gardening | YouTubeToText
YouTube Transcript: The History of Potatoes: the origin, the world-wide travel, the subsequent fame. #potatohistory
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The potato, originating in the Andes, has evolved from a local staple to a globally significant food crop, profoundly impacting human history, population growth, and agricultural practices worldwide.
Potatoes! Nowadays they're about 5,000 potato varieties and many are cultivated
worldwide. That's a lot of varieties compared to only five potato types
found in our local grocery store here in California and most stores have only
three types on average: red, golden and russet potatoes
The wild potato species can be found only in the Americas from the United States to southern Chile
Genetic testing of cultivars and wild species traced all potatoes the single
place of origin - the Andes of present-day southern Peru and extreme northwestern Bolivia
To this day 3,000 potato cultivars are found in that region
mainly in Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Chile and Colombia, where over hundred cultivars
might be found in a single valley, and a dozen or more might be maintained
by a single agricultural household
There, in the highlands of the Andes
the first domesticated potato varieties
might have been bred as early as ten thousand years ago
Potatoes were a staple food for the Inca civilization in mid 16th century
when conquistadors started bringing the tubers to Spain
along with the Incas gold and silver
at the beginning potatoes were grown by royalty as exotic flowering plants
and were considered poisonous to eat
The English word "potato" comes from Spanish "patata"
a hybrid of the Taino - one of the Caribbean languages - word "batata"
for a sweet potato and the original Quechua name for the potato "papa"
At that time sweet potatoes and potatoes were
erroneously thought to be the same plant
Over the following 200 years
potatoes were spread gradually throughout Europe
enhancing the lower-class diet of oats barley turnips and rutabaga
In France and Germany government officials and noble landowners promoted the conversion of fallow land
into potato fields after 1750
Sir Walter Reilly's employee Thomas Harriot
is commonly credited with introducing potatoes into England and Ireland in the late 1580s
Although potatoes had become widely familiar in Russia by 1800s they
were confined to garden plots until the grain failure in 1838 - 39 persuaded
peasants and landlords to devote their fields to rising potatoes
Potatoes yielded two to four times more calories per acre than grain did, and tended
to become more popular in wartime due to their being able to distort in the ground
hidden from my marauders and confiscations
Eventually they came to dominate
the food supply in Europe. Potatoes were slow to be adopted by
European farmers initially, but by the 19th century the potato became an
important food staple and a field crop that played a major role in the rapid
growth of the European population
According to some estimates
the introduction of the potato was responsible for a quarter of the growth
of the old world population and urbanization between 1700 and 1900
Initially, very few varieties were introduced and spread throughout Europe
Potato mono crops, lacking genetic diversity, were
vulnerable to disease. In 1845 - 1849 a fungus known as late blight spread
rapidly throughout the potato fields in the poorer communities of Western Ireland
and parts of the Scottish Highlands killing the crops and bringing the great
Irish Famine when about 1 million people died and a million more emigrated from
Ireland. Since then the problem was corrected by bringing in more genetic
material from the Americas developing more disease resistant varieties and
then introducing new pesticides and fungicides to agriculture. Now with all
available chemicals to keep the tubers intact the industry can practice
monocropping again
okay, back to the history. Potatoes entered
Africa with colonists. Shipping records from 1567 showed that the first place
potatoes were grown outside of Central and South America were the Cannery
islands. As in other continents despite its advantages as an anti
famine, high elevation alternative to grain, potatoes who first resisted by
African farmers who believed they were poisonous. While European colonists
promoted them as a low-cost food they were also symbol of domination. Only by
the mid 20th century and in present-day Africa potatoes have become a common
vegetable and a core stable crop
On the contrary in China potatoes immediately
became a delicacy of the imperial family in their 1600s. During a population
increase and the subsequent need to increase production of food in 1735 - 1796
potato cultivation spread rapidly throughout China and was acclaimed to
local natural conditions
In India British colonists brought potatoes with them
The first record that mentioned potatoes being served at a court
reception for the British ambassador was made in 1675
The Portuguese introduced potatoes to India
as a crop in the early 17th century when they cultivated them along the western coast
Potatoes were brought to Australia by the British
settlers in the late 18th and early 19th century
Early North American colonists in Virginia and the Carolinas may have grown potatoes from seeds or
tubers that arrived in Spanish ships.
But the earliest record of u.s. potato crop was
in Londonderry, New Hampshire, in 1719
The tubers were from Ireland and
became known as Irish potatoes.
Potatoes were planted in Idaho as early as 1838
By 1900's the state production exceeded a million bushels which is about 27,000 tons
To this day potatoes remain the top vegetable crop in the United States
They are grown commercially in 30 States but Idaho grows more potatoes than any
other state, followed by Washington, North Dakota, Wisconsin and Colorado
Until the early 1990s most potatoes were grown and consumed in Europe North America and
countries of the former Soviet Union Since then there has been a dramatic
increase in potato production and demand in Asia Africa and Latin America where
output rose from less than 30 million tons in the early 1960s to more than 165
million tonnes in 2007
In 2005 for the first time the developing world's potato production
exceeded that of the developed world
China is now the biggest potato producer and almost a third of all potatoes is harvested in China
and India, followed by Russian Federation Ukraine and then the US
I hope you enjoyed learning all the these curious facts about the food you eat so often
If so, please like the video and subscribe to our channel for free to see
more videos about foods you eat and hopefully grow in your garden
and other plants you encounter on your walks in nature
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