me first

daily dos

tue 6/17/2008

 

Peru and Chile are beefing over the origin of potatoes. Last week, Chilean agriculture minister Marigen Hornkohl proclaimed: "Few people know that 99 percent of the world's potatoes have some type of genetic link to potatoes from Chile." Peruvian Foreign Minister José Antonio García Belaúnde responded: "Obviously, the world has known for centuries that the potato is from Peru and that the Peruvian potato saved Europe from hunger." Charles Crissman of the International Potato Center: [T]he first potatoes came from what is today Peru." (via FP Passport)