Imagine a World Without Potatoes Pt 1

Imagine a World Without Potatoes Pt 1

Bob Larson
Bob Larson
I'm Bob Larson. It's a food used in practically every culture, but one the world may take somewhat for granted. It's the potato, which is a very big deal here in the Pacific Northwest. At the Potato Expo, I spoke with Marc DeBeaufort who is the director of a worldwide campaign called, "Imagine a World Without Potatoes."

He says it's about ALL the potato represents ...

DeBEAUFORT ... "Let's go beyond the fact that potatoes are delicious and a French fry on a cold day it's just a wonderful feeling, but potatoes represent even more than that. They represent love, comfort, warmth, and also a very, very long human tradition of domesticating a weird tuber from the high Andes that has now become the third most important crop in the world."

DeBeaufort says the potato means different things to different cultures ...

DeBEAUFORT ... "It's a little bit of a stereotype, but if you ask a Russian then they'll say oh my God, it's a world without vodka and that's a terrible world, I don't want to live in that world. But, it's very many different things in different countries. In Canada, I would argue it's a world with poutine that thing they do, which I'm sure is very fattening, but you know with the French fries and cheese, or if you ask in Idaho it might be a world without a baked potato, or if you ask in France, well, they faint because it's a world without frites. So, let's remember that that versatility is what's enabled the potato to become such a national icon in such different cultures."

DeBeaufort says we all love potatoes in some way, so his campaign is to make sure we don't forget about our spuds.

Listen tomorrow for more on a World Without Potatoes.

Go to www.worldwithoutpotatoes.org for more about this worldwide campaign.

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