Watch this video to see how potatoes are harvested. Read more to discover different potato products and why YOU should eat a potato!

With over 4,000 varieties¹ to choose from, the potato is a family favourite. But, don’t eat green potatoes because they can make you sick – rather cut green parts of the skin off before cooking and eating.

Eat a Potato:

“Potatoes are rich in carbohydrates, which makes them a good source of energy. They are have high content of vitamin C and potassium, and protein that is well matched to human needs.

Another reason is that potatoes are easy to grow even in harsh environments. They also produce a lot of food very quickly from a small area of land. Because they grow under the ground, potatoes are also less prone to damage than other crops” (FAO, 2008) ¹.

Potato Products:

Here are a few examples of what 1 acre of potatoes could potentially produce and a few benefits for using this crop:

1. French fries –110,000 cups of French Fries/Finger Chips
2. Biodegradable, disposable plates – Potato starch is a 100% biodegradable so a great substitute for plastic. 80% of the plate is made from potatoes and the rest is other crops like soy^{2, 3}
3. Fuel-grade ethanol – Potato peel and other “zero value” wastes from potato processing are rich in starch that can be liquefied and fermented. One acre produces around 2,045 litres of fuel-grade ethanol

Assumption: Yield is roughly 44,000 lbs per acre or roughly 20 tonnes (1 pound of potatoes is equal to 3-4 medium white potatoes or 2.5 cups French fries) ^{4, 5} 44,000 tonnes of processing waste could produce 4 to 5 million litres of ethanol) so 20 tonnes makes 2,045 litres of fuel-grade ethanol⁶

Learn More:

http://www.fao.org/potato-2008/en/potato/index.html

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Sources:
¹ FAO (2008). Potato Facts. http://www.fao.org/potato-2008/en/kids/index.html
² https://www.sciencelearn.org.nz/resources/1078-developing-potato-plates
³ http://inhabitat.com/spudware-cutlery-made-from-potatoes/
⁴ http://www.idahofb.org/index.php?action=commodities.potatoes
⁵ http://www.howmuchisin.com/produce_converters/potato
⁶ http://www.fao.org/potato-2008/en/potato/utilization.html
Images courtesy of: https://pixabay.com/en/photos/?image_type=&cat=&min_width=&min_height=&q=potato&order=popular