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Vladimir Putin is demanding urgent potato imports from Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus, while he delays supplying the ally with promised notorious Oreshnik horror missiles. Putin has made the shameful admission that he has run out of spuds - one of his country’s leading food staples - amid economic meltdown during his war with Ukraine. It now appears Belarus will not get the lethal missiles until after Lukashenko supplies Putin with new exports of potatoes which have spiralled in prices in Russia. The Minsk tyrant has even cancelled sanctions against imports from the EU to stock up to supply Russia. -snip-...

Russian president Vladimir Putin has acknowledged crop shortages as pressure on the country’s economy continues to mount. Pressure is mounting on Russia amid labour shortages, international sanctions, record interest rates, and inflation, but Putin’s admission of shortages of key crops marks a milestone in the nation’s woes. Speaking yesterday in a televised meeting, he said: “Yesterday, I met with representatives from various business sectors, including agriculture. It turns out that we don’t have enough potatoes. “I spoke with Alexander Grigoryevich Lukashenko. He said, ‘We’ve already sold everything to Russia’.” Potato shortages have become a serious problem in neighbouring Belarus, with...

(links set to start at 2:22, skipping the short initial remarks and the Magellan TV ad)Potatoes and History | The History Guy:History Deserves to Be Remembered15:36 | 1.18M subscribers | 358K views | 2 years ago

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency wants to know what people think about the size of canned, cubed, white potatoes -- but if you want to know exactly who asked for the change or why this is a priority exercise, you're out of luck. CFIA launched a month-long consultation on Jan. 21 after saying it had received a request from "industry" to change the maximum allowed size of diced, canned potatoes from 10 millimetres to 20 millimetres. "Yes, we care about all potatoes -- big and small," The tweet was met with great delight by some Twitter users who jumped at...

Potatoes: A Complete Planting Guide including tips on Seed Preparation, Soil Preparation, Planting, Fertilizing, Watering, Weed Control, Insects, Diseases, Harvesting, and Storing.

We may think of potatoes as the most basic of foods, given their modern ubiquity and low cost, but in the Moche culture in ancient Peru, archaeologists had assumed they were highly charged symbols of the elite because they were found only in artifacts. New research, however, has shown that our understanding of New World potato consumption is biased by the fact the starchy vegetable is nearly always consumed in its entirety. In a forthcoming article in the Journal of Archaeological Science, researchers Guy Duke of the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley and Victor Vásquez-Sanchez and Teresa Rosales-Tham of...

LIMA (Reuters) - As wheat and rice prices surge, the humble potato -- long derided as a boring tuber prone to making you fat -- is being rediscovered as a nutritious crop that could cheaply feed an increasingly hungry world. Potatoes, which are native to Peru, can be grown at almost any elevation or climate: from the barren, frigid slopes of the Andes Mountains to the tropical flatlands of Asia. They require very little water, mature in as little as 50 days, and can yield between two and four times more food per hectare than wheat or rice. "The shocks...

THE feast of Ireland’s patron saint has always been an occasion for saluting the beautiful land “where the praties grow,” but it’s also a time to look again at the disaster that established around the world the Irish communities that today celebrate St. Patrick’s Day: the Great Potato Famine of 1845-6. In its wake, the Irish left the old country, with more than half a million settling in United States. The famine and the migrations changed Irish and American history, of course, but they drastically changed Britain too. Americans may think of the disease that destroyed Ireland’s potato crops, late...

For as long as I can remember, all I've ever heard about the Irish in general or the Irish in America or the meaning behind St. Patrick's Day was ... drink, drank, drunk. That's it. And I'm not alone. Back in 2001, social activist Tom Hayden published a stunning book entitled "Irish on the Inside: In Search of the Soul of Irish America"; it's a memoir-social history-travelogue combined. In a chapter called "Drinking, Sexuality, and Assimilation," Hayden writes: "Drinking was the only Irish legacy passed along to me. You drink because you're Irish, I learned, which soon became you're Irish...

McDonald's Corp is facing at least three lawsuits in the US related to its disclosure last week that its french fries contain wheat and dairy products. Debra Moffatt of Lombard, Illinois, seeks unspecified damages in a lawsuit filed on Friday in Cook County Circuit Court that accuses the company of misleading the public. Her lawyer, Thomas Pakenas, said his client has celiac disease that causes gastrointestinal symptoms when set off by eating gluten, a protein found in wheat. "You cannot sell gluten-free french fries when they have gluten," Pakenas said. Moffatt's lawsuit seeks class-action status. McDonald's said on February 13...

Ancient Peruvians loved their spuds Maggie Fox Reuters Tuesday, 4 October 2005 The humble chip originated from potatoes grown in Peru about 7000 years ago (Image: iStockphoto) The first cultivated potato was grown in what is now Peru, researchers say, and it originated only once, not several times, as some experts propose. The genetic study shows the first potato known to have been farmed is genetically closest to a species now found only in southern Peru, the US and UK researchers write online, ahead of print, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "This result shows the potato...

Each year, about 350 million people worldwide are chronically infected with hepatitis B virus. Spread through blood and other bodily fluids, this virus puts them at high risk for cirrhosis, chronic liver disease and liver cancer -- diseases that kill about 1 million people each year. Yet through the magic of biotechnology, the lowly spud may change that. For centuries, potatoes have saved lives with their nourishment. Now they'e tackling diseases spread by viruses and bacteria. Using potatoes with a protein gene (called antigens) from HBV spliced into them, researchers have produced high levels of immunity-providing antibodies in volunteers who...

Latest Mr. Potato Head: 'Darth Tater' January 19, 2005 PAWTUCKET, R.I. — A spud on the dark side. That's how toy maker Hasbro Inc. is promoting its latest Mr. Potato Head figure, Darth Tater (search). The toy spud will be available next month, ahead of the May release of "Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith," the latest installment in that film series. Darth Tater will come with a light saber, cape and helmet, in addition to the regular Mr. Potato Head (search) accessories such as eyes, mouth and nose. The Pawtucket-based toy maker says children will be...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. PENDLETON — The recently announced closure of the Simplot factory in Hermiston has potato farmers throughout the state worried. The J.R. Simplot Co., one of the world's biggest french fry manufacturers, announced it would close its only Oregon plant by the end of the year. The company will let go 125 employees by June, with 500 to follow in November, But in addition to leaving hundreds at the plant jobless, the move will also leave millions of pounds of potatoes with nowhere to go after this growing season, producers say. That...