potatoes - Google Docs

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Abilene Christian University *

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132

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Anthropology

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Oct 30, 2023

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pdf

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Uploaded by MegaHareMaster957

The potato is a starchy food that grows underground, specifically on the roots of the plant known as Solanum tuberosum. It's considered a root vegetable and is originally from the Americas. The potato plant is part of the nightshade family, Solanaceae, and it's a perennial, meaning it grows year after year. Wild potato species can be found from the southern United States to southern Chile. It was initially thought that Native Americans domesticated potatoes in various locations independently, but genetic studies later revealed a single origin in what is now southern Peru and northwestern Bolivia about 7,000 to 10,000 years ago. In the Andes region of South America, where the potato is native, there are close relatives of the potato that are also cultivated. The introduction of potatoes to Europe happened in the 16th century when the Spanish brought them back from the Americas. Today, potatoes are a fundamental food source in many parts of the world and are a crucial part of the global food supply. In fact, as of 2014, potatoes were the fourth-largest food crop worldwide, following maize (corn), wheat, and rice. After thousands of years of selective breeding, there are now more than 5,000 different types of potatoes. The majority of potatoes grown globally are descended from varieties that originated in south-central Chile. The importance of potatoes as a food source and ingredient varies by region and continues to evolve. It remains a crucial crop in Europe, particularly in Northern and Eastern Europe, where production per person is among the highest in the world. The 21st century has seen the most significant expansion of potato production in southern and eastern Asia, with China and India leading the world in potato production. Similar to the tomato, the potato belongs to the nightshade family Solanum, and certain parts of the plant, including the leaves and unripe fruits, contain a toxin called solanine, which can be harmful if ingested. However, properly grown and stored potato tubers have only small, negligible amounts of solanine and are safe to eat. The concentration of solanine can increase in the presence of light, particularly in green sections of the plant like sprouts and skins. Regarding the word "potato," it comes from the Spanish word "patata," which was used in Spain. The Spanish word itself is a mix of the Taíno word "batata" (meaning sweet potato) and the Quechua word "papa" (meaning potato). Interestingly, the term "potato" was originally used for sweet potatoes, even though sweet potatoes and potatoes are not closely related. In the 16th century, an English herbalist referred to sweet potatoes as "common potatoes" and used different terms like "bastard potatoes" and "Virginia potatoes" to describe what we now call potatoes. In the United States, potatoes are sometimes referred to as "Irish potatoes" or "white potatoes" to distinguish them from sweet potatoes. The term "spud" for a potato comes from the act of digging the soil before planting potatoes. The word's origin is unclear, but it was initially used to describe a short knife or dagger around 1440, possibly related to the Latin word root "spad-," which means "sword." Over time, the term was applied to various digging tools and eventually to the potato itself. There's a misconception

that it stands for "Society for the Prevention of Unwholesome Diet (SPUD)," a supposed 18th-century activist group, but this origin story is false. Several languages, including Afrikaans, Dutch, French, Frisian, Hebrew, Persian, and some forms of German, use terms for "potato" that roughly translate to "earth apple" or "ground apple" in English.

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