Buried Treasures

Unearthing potatoes makes one think of buried treasure. Our row of Austrian Crescent and New Red elicited cries of delight as spud after glorious spud made its way into the light. We were digging for true sustenance.

The poor potato too often gets a bad rap. I hear often from clients who have been sadly misinformed that there’s no nutritive value to a potato. Whether this is a hangover from the Atkin’s diet craze or a result of misunderstood diabetic education, I’m not sure, but, “potatoes are just like white sugar” seems a common misconception. And while all things carbohydrate will eventually break down into blood glucose (our body’s preferred source of fuel) the potato has a lot more to offer than just the energy from it's storage of complex carbohydrates...

Potatoes are a good source of vitamin C, B-vitamins, potassium, phosphorous, magnesium as well as providing dietary fiber and cancer fighting antioxidants. Unfortunately, the most common form of potatoes enjoyed in the U.S.- french fries- do not get distinguishing marks for good nutrition. Ditto for processed potatoes like flakes and other such nonsense. The nutritive value remains highest when the potato remain whole- skin and all.

And while not a substitute for whole grains, unlike wheat, rye, barley, quinoa, and so on, potatoes are a good source of carbohydrate energy that can easily be grown and processed (processing is the key here) by home gardeners. Home grown carbohydrates = very local and very delicious.

Originally hailing from Peru, potatoes are now one of the world's largest crops- likely owing to the economic virtues of the energy dense tuber. The few varieties grown on a large scale and found in the grocery store (yellow, russet, and red) belie the wide diversity of potatoes that exist- there are literally thousands. A few of my favorites- Purple Peruvian, La Ratte, Adirondack Blue, Rose Finn apple, Red Norland, Russian banana, Russet Burbank. The lovely Ozette potatoe has made it’s way onto Slow Food’s Ark of Taste- a catalogue of delicious foods in danger of extinction. Farmers and gardeners keeping these varietals growing and in circulation improves biodiversity- a marker of health and resilance in our food system.

Sustainable Nutrition Bottomline:
Eat potatoes. Eat a wide variety of them. Eat them roasted, grilled, baked, and steamed. Seek out new varieties from local farmers- 'tis the season! Grow them at home- if not this year, maybe next. Seed Savers Exchange gorgeous catalogue can get you started.

If you have diabetes or suffer from “portion distortion”- a reminder: ½ cup of potato counts as one serving of carbohydrate and balanced meals include 3-5 servings of carbohydrate.

Exporting our Flawed Food System

NPR shared two significant stories about our food system today. One story told of an industrial farm community's lack of good food, and the other told of a plan to boost industrial farm aid to poor nations.

From the ongoing series Hidden Kitchens by the Kitchen Sisters came Central Valley Disconnect: Rich Land, Poor Nutrition. The story details how California's Central Valley, one of the largest producers of fruits and vegetables, has very little healthy food to eat. "... the children of this valley rarely taste those fruits and vegetables." The poverty of these farming communities creates major health disparities. Residents and public health workers are trying to overcome the obesogenic environment through walking clubs and farm stands at schools and farmer's markets.

And from the news: the G8 meeting pledged 20 billion dollars in food aid for Africa. President Obama said, "There's no reason why Africa shouldn't be able to feed itself." NPR's Planet Money blog seemed to laud the decision in the post G8's New Approach to Hunger.

"Today's G8 announcement of $20 billion for food aid actually takes a fairly revolutionary step. Instead of just delivering food, G8 countries are going to help poor countries develop their agriculture industries. It's almost like a farming stimulus, only provided by outside countries rather than local governments. The American share of that pledge is about $3.5 billion, which would be a doubling of previous hunger spending."

It sound great- right? "Teach a man how to fish..." But here's the problem- the biotech industry in behind this aid push and the biotech industry doesn't have a good track record in helping to feed the world's poor. Environmental, economic, and human woes have been the primary outcomes of the biotech agenda. Basically, with biotech, instead of growing food to feed themselves, the small farmers grow food for the world market The industrial farming techniques bankrupt the soil and the farmers. Instead of saving seed, like farmer's have done since the dawn of agriculture, farmer's must buy patented GMO seed and fertilizer and pesticides, year after year, form giant corporations like Monsanto, then they are subject to world market forces larger than themselves, ultimately reaping prices for their crops that can't sustain them. They go hungry while biotech gets rich. In India- the disastrous result has been horrific epidemics of farmer suicides and food riots.

Civil Eats explored this topic back in June in the article, All That Glitters is Not Gold: Biotechnology Has Failed Us, So Why Promote It Abroad? In the post, Paula Crossfield connects some of the dots between big ag and food insecurity. "Meanwhile, here in the US, 36 million people are food insecure, and yet we are one of the biggest agricultural producers in the world." In her interview with global food policy expert and Stuffed and Starved author Raj Patel, he says, "Everyone agrees that African farmers need support. But this story is like the vacuum cleaner salesman who dumps dirt on your floor to show you how his product can pick some of it up."

While food policy folks have been arguing for years to solve the problem of hunger by increasing aid for agriculture, this move by the G8 seems more like aid to biotech. Industrial ag can not feed people without lots of oil and water and profits for big ag companies. Real agro-ecological alternatives that respect a culture's food traditions are the only long term solution.

Sustainable Nutrition Bottomline:

Industrial ag does not solve world hunger, in many cases it perpetuates it as it keeps control of resources in the hands of the few. If millions of people across the United States are going hungry each day and millions of people are overweight while undernourished-why would we export our flawed food system? Feeding people nourishing food requires a transformation in the way we grow and think about food.