I See the News Then Look for More about Potatoes

"The Potato Farmers" - Jean-Francois Millet (WIKI:  Jean-François Millet)

Millet was painting about twenty to thirty years before van Gogh in France.  The roots of Impressionism are clear and the interest just now is the attraction toward potatoes and the people who live with them since we saw this with van Gogh as well in "The Potato Eaters."


There's some tragic irony in potatoes since they show tremendous variety in a genome which includes a thousand species and four- or five-thousand varieties.  However, only a few examples were originally sent back to the Old World and those were propagated all over the place.  That lack of genetic diversity in the Old World left a vulnerability to a virus and this was the root of the Great Irish Famine.


The Basic Rockhouse Potato Logic has been they're sort of good for you and they taste good as fries with a whole lot of salt.  Beyond that we knew don't take too much of them or you'll wind up a fat ass.  That was the end of the local potato logic.

It turns out even the parts which aren't good for you serve a useful purpose.  Some components of the potato can't be digested and they go right through you but the sciencers say that's helpful toward elimination, perhaps as much as fiber.  Maybe that's interesting if you eat a lot of All-Bran but our interest is because the lowly spud has redeeming qualities we didn't know.


The genetic aspect is a huge deal in part because we see all the ranting and raving about GMO, usually directed toward Monsanto.  However, we're not particularly concerned about GMO and Monsanto gives a specific reason for that:

Genetic research has produced several genetically modified varieties. 'New Leaf', owned by Monsanto Company, incorporates genes from Bacillus thuringiensis, which confers resistance to the Colorado potato beetle; 'New Leaf Plus' and 'New Leaf Y', approved by US regulatory agencies during the 1990s, also include resistance to viruses. McDonald's, Burger King, Frito-Lay, and Procter & Gamble announced they would not use genetically modified potatoes, and Monsanto published its intent to discontinue the line in March 2001.

Note: excerpt from WIKI: Potato

Although the GMO aspect yields positive benefits in reduced vulnerability to attack, it was rejected by the public because anti-vaxx or something.  The Miracle of the Internet is anyone with a suit and a webcam can be an expert on anything at all.

The problem with the lines of potatoes from Monsanto isn't so much the GMO but rather Monsanto seeks to patent their lines of food products based on that GMO change.  Alone that doesn't mean much but the next move after that is to restrict other lines of the same products to give state preference to theirs.  We saw an example of this in the EU attempt to limit import of different varieties of tomatoes.

The consequence of restricting genetic diversity today is the same as it was prior to the Great Irish Famine.  It's all very well to see these patented crops are resistant to the Godzilla virus but they're wide open to some other which lays waste to the entire population, just as happened in Ireland.

We don't care all that much about GMO but we care one hell of a lot about restricting genetic diversity.  Monsanto tries to do that so hand them over for a trial by fire.