It’s all very nice to be curious and learn things...things of value. What value is there in knowing how long sweet potatoes have been in Polynesia and where they came from? Will that knowledge increase sweet potato production, or improve their nutritional content?
Bottom line, if they’re spending their own money to find out, no harm, no foul. But they’re usually spending OUR money! Apply this principle to all the interesting but useless studies going on; save us a bundle.
Knowing things like this helps you pick up women in bars. So there :-).
“What value is there in knowing how long sweet potatoes have been in Polynesia and where they came from? Will that knowledge increase sweet potato production, or improve their nutritional content?”
That sounds straight outta the USSR. One of the most compelling things science can do is tell us the story of how humanity spread across the earth and give us some answers about our history.
And if government is spending my money to increase production or nutritional content, I would say that is more properly the job of the sweet potato industry.