I was sent this link this morning, a WaPo WSJ story about how food smugglers who try to bring in special stuff via JFK Airport are caught by the beagles (literally), with Peruvians trying to get in specific varieties of potato being the central feature of the note. All well and good, Peruvians in the USA want papa amarilla to make causa (can’t blame them for that), Black Friday whimsy report in the bizrag, lah lah lah, until we get to this quote at the end:
Blair Richardson, chief executive of the U.S. Potato Board, an industry group, says it “doesn’t make a lot of sense” to import potatoes from Peru because U.S. growers now produce varieties that share roots with ones in the Andean country
Dear gringos: All potato varieties share roots with ones in Peru. All of them. The fact that you’ve taken the original product, morphed it into something that tastes like cardboard and now in the 21st century only get to know what a potato can taste like when you get to eat one from its place of origin is beside the point. They all come from Peruvian roots, every last one of them.