Potatoes are eaten by more than 1 billion people, and after rice and wheat are considered the world’s third most important food crop. But only a handful of varieties find their way into supermarkets. If varieties are grown in isolation as monocultures there’s the risk disease can rip through a crop, as was the case with blight and the “lumper” potato, cause of the Great Famine in Ireland in the 1840s (scientists would later discover resistance to the particular strain of rot in the genes of a South American potato).
The ancient foods that could help feed the world
