Yes, I love sweet potato pie................
Posted on 11/20/2007 3:15:56 PM PST by blam
Sweet Potato Promises Hunger Relief In Developing Countries
ScienceDaily (Nov. 21, 2007) — Sweetpotatoes, often misunderstood and underrated, are receiving new attention as a life-saving food crop in developing countries.
According to the International Potato Center, more than 95 percent of the global sweetpotato crop is grown in developing countries, where it is the fifth most important food crop. Despite its name, the sweetpotato is not related to the potato. Potatoes are tubers (referring to their thickened stems) and members of the Solanaceae family, which also includes tomatoes, red peppers, and eggplant. Sweetpotatoes are classified as "storage roots" and belong to the morning-glory family.
Scientists believe that sweetpotatoes were domesticated more than 5,000 years ago and reportedly introduced into China in the late 16th century. Because of its hardy nature and broad adaptability, sweetpotato spread through Asia, Africa, and Latin America during the 17th and 18th centuries. It is now grown in more developing countries than any other root crop.
Sweetpotato has a long history as a lifesaving crop. When typhoons demolished thousands of rice fields, Japanese farmers turned to sweetpotato to sustain their country. Sweetpotato kept millions from starvation in famine-plagued China in the early 1960s, and in Uganda, where a virus ravaged cassava crops in the 1990s, the hardy hero came to the rescue, nourishing millions in rural communities.
Rich in carbohydrates and vitamin A, sweetpotatoes are nutrition superstars. Uses range from consumption of fresh roots or leaves to processing into animal feed, starch, flour, candy and alcohol. Because of its versatility and adaptability, sweetpotato ranks as the world's seventh most important food crop (following wheat, rice, maize, potato, barley, and cassava). Globally, more than 133 million tons of the underrated, vitamin-packed root are produced each year.
Despite its storied history, sweetpotato has received relative little attention from crop improvement research. To bring attention to the issue, a recent study was published by the American Society for Horticultural Science. For the study, researchers conducted a survey of 36 scientists from 21 developing countries to solicit opinions on key constraints affecting the productivity of small sweetpotato producers.
Keith Fuglie, of the Resources and Rural Economics Division at the United States Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service, led the study. He found consistent key constraints in all major sweetpotato producing areas. Survey respondents indicated that the priority needs in developing countries were: control of viruses, small-enterprise development for sweetpotato processing, improvement in availability and quality of sweetpotato planting material and improved cultivars exhibiting high and stable yield potential.
Some differences emerged, however, in priority needs of the two major centers of sweetpotato production -- Sub-Saharan Africa and China. Additional priorities for Sub-Saharan Africa included improved control of the sweetpotato weevil and cultivars with high beta carotene content to address Vitamin A deficiency. For China, priorities included: conservation and characterization of genetic resources, prebreeding, cultivars with high starch yield and new product development. According to Fuglie, the different sets of priorities reflect differences in the role of sweetpotato in the rural economy and also different capacities of the agricultural research system in these regions of the world.
Fuglie noted that "these findings could help agricultural scientists working for national and international institutions establish their priorities for sweetpotato crop improvement research. Focusing research on the key productivity constraints facing sweetpotato farmers in a particular country or region will increase the likelihood of farmer adoption and potential impact of the technology resulting from that research."
Principal beneficiaries of the research study will be small-scale sweetpotato farmers in developing countries. Fuglie hopes that emerging technologies based on research will be available for sweetpotato farmers within 5 to 10 years.
Adapted from materials provided by American Society for Horticultural Science.
Sweet potatoes are good for the reproductive system, too.
By eating them?
Ever carve a sweet potato into something good for the reproductive system?
Well, I wouldn't eat them, so I guess I'm confused.
I yam what I yam...
I recall a report about ten years ago claiming a sweet potato heavy diet increases the rate of twins and triplets.
Gentlemen, please curb your imaginations!
Yes, Petronski, one eats the sweet potatoes for the health benefit.
A sweet potato with butter and salt is better than any regular white potato.
Trust me.
Not by a long stretch...
I saw that, too.
Sweet potatoes with brown sugar and marshmallows are yucky.
IMO.
I eat twice my share of cranberry jelly crap, but avoid the sweetpataters (unless you count pumpkin pie, which is really just canned squash). I’m confused. Pass the turkey.
LOL.
Oh, I’m sorry! I hope you feel better soon.
FYI
Sweet potatoes are loaded with follicle stimulating hormones. When women eat them their ovaries are stimulated to produce eggs. Some places in Africa where sweet potatoes are consumed in large quantities have a twinning rate of about 9% or so. Lots of triplets too.
Just what China and developing countries need.
Watch out this Thanksgiving when you serve sweet potato pie. Nine months from now you might have a surprise.
Yes, I love sweet potato pie................
Internally?
Sweet Tater Pie! Yummy!
Indeed.
I root for them too...
Uh, I can't.
I'm childish about this, I know, but a food can either have the color of poop or the consistency of poop and I can eat it. But not both. No, not both.
Sweet potatoes are good, especially with butter, but then what isn’t good with butter.
If only it were true! You see, I'm really quite fantastically bald.
What isn’t mentioned is that with the use of GM, sweet potatoes can be made a whole lot better. Depending on the situation, their levels of protein, carbohydrate, various vitamins and minerals can be adjusted for the needs of different people.
My brother grows them in his garden. He loves them with eggs instead of regular potatoes.
According to my brother’s (who is a diabetic) research, the sweet potato is the best food for you health-wise that you can eat.
Why is that?
Try eating a baked sweet potato with lots of butter and salt.
It does not look like poop. Now if you were to mash them and add other stuff you might have a point. :)
I’ve made them with marshmallow, I’ve made them with syrup. I’ve added pecans and, of course, brown sugar.
Well hey...I tried it.
Now, pierce them with a fork a coupla times and stick them in the oven. When they are nice and soft, add a big dab of butter and know that God is in His heaven and all is right with the world.
My reproductive system works good too.
Sweet potato pie...yum!
You must have an excellent diet.
do the ole toothpicks to suspend cut sweet pot in glass of water and grow a morning glory-like flower,
The Sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) is indigenous to South America - and made it's way around the world rapidly after European contact....
Also, many people believe the white potatoes come from Ireland. They, also, are from the Americas = also blue, purple, red, etc = many of which are once again being grown...you can even buy "Blue Potato Chips"
“Keith Fuglie, of the Resources and Rural Economics Division at the United States Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service”
He got stuck researching the fugliest of crops the sweet potato, poor guy
Do you feel the same way? Because I think that’s outrageous. How did your brother ever manage to chew through the leather straps, that’s what I want to know.
I bet you teased him a lot when you were children.
And a sweet potato with butter and warmed pure maple syrup drizzled over tastes even better...
trust me
That’s a strange looking child. I think it’s because his left ear is much larger than his right.
Honeysuckle Turkey Promises Hunger Relief In Petronski’s Still-Developing Belly
YOu do realize it's a computer tweaked image, right?
I have no idea where he picked up that strange combination. Certainly not from his sisters!
Your wife will be canonized one day!
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