Few foods are as versatile as the potato. Baked, fried, boiled, roasted, or mashed, they can make a delicious side dish or even serve as the main event. Although some misperceptions about potatoes persist, namely that they are only starchy, empty calories with little nutritional value, they actually play a crucial role in increasing access to healthy food across the United States and around the world.
Potatoes are uniquely positioned at the intersection of nutritious, affordable, versatile, and accessible. They provide a wholesome food staple that helps address food insecurity, fight global hunger, and enhance public nutrition programs like school meal programs that support vulnerable and low-income populations.
Farmers and growers like those in Washington State believe that potatoes are an economically and environmentally sustainable part of the solution to global nutritional needs and play a key role in fighting hunger and malnutrition for the following reasons:
Potatoes Offer Significant Health Benefits
Nutritionists and dieticians have come to understand that there are several health benefits to potatoes, especially when they are prepared in health-conscious ways. Potatoes provide essential nutrients, including:
- Carbohydrates, which your body converts into glucose for energy
- Vitamin C, which helps your immune system
- Potassium, which lowers blood pressure and helps regulate your nervous system
- B vitamins, especially B6, which support brain function and development
- Fiber, which is important for digestive health
In general, potatoes are a nutrient-rich food that supports balanced diets and contributes to overall health. However, as with most foods, the manner of cooking and added ingredients can affect or outweigh the health benefits. For example, although French fries are made with potatoes, the added fat and sodium from deep-frying and salting them make them a less healthy version than a baked potato.
Paying attention to how you prepare them, as well as portion size and added toppings, condiments, and so on, allows you to readily incorporate potatoes into your healthy diet.
Potatoes Are Affordable and Widely Available
Because potatoes require minimal land usage and have a short growing cycle, they have a low production cost, especially relative to the nutrients per calorie that they provide, resulting in a cost-efficient crop that is good for both small-scale farmers and larger agricultural producers. This cost efficiency is passed on to consumers, which makes potatoes a valuable, affordable, and nutritious resource, especially for low-income families or communities that struggle with stricter food budgets.
Potatoes also have a long shelf life, making them easy to store and transport. Areas that have limited access to fresh produce or are not agriculturally viable by themselves can access a readily available, healthy, and reliable food source by bringing in and distributing potatoes.
Potatoes Contribute to Global Food Security
Now grown in over 100 countries, potatoes are a resilient crop that can thrive in many climates and even different altitudes. They require less water than many staple grains, like wheat or rice, grow quickly, and offer high yields per hectare. These adaptable characteristics mean that potatoes are a dependable crop, even for areas with limited arable land or that are facing climate-related agricultural challenges like drought. This is essential when trying to feed ever-expanding populations.
Since local and rural communities can grow potatoes themselves, they become less dependent on imports, which in turn increases their self-sufficiency and food security. In addition, the potato’s extended shelf life means they can be stored for longer periods of time, reducing post-harvest waste and losses and ensuring increased access to food for these communities.
Potatoes Enhance School Meal and Other Nutrition Programs
It’s not just vulnerable global populations that benefit from potatoes either. School meal programs are essential to improving children’s nutrition, which in turn contributes positively toward their cognitive performance, focus, attendance, and overall health. Many school food programs have turned to potatoes as an affordable, nutritious, satiating food option that is easy to prepare in a variety of ways.
Other humanitarian food aid programs, such as food distribution programs after a natural disaster or temporary housing shelters, and charitable food banks also take advantage of the low cost and impressive shelf life of potatoes, which make them ideal for addressing long-term community food shortages.
When schools and food banks partner with local farmers and growers, there is the added bonus of supporting local agriculture and contributing positively to the community.
Potatoes Help Diversify Global Diets
In regions of the world that rely mainly on rice or other grains, adding potatoes helps diversify the diets of the inhabitants. Dietary diversity is important to overall health because it introduces or increases the intake of certain vitamins and minerals that might otherwise be missing or found in inadequate amounts. In addition, a more diverse diet can improve appetite and interest in food, which can be important in aging populations, who tend to become disinterested in eating, to the detriment of their health.
Since preparation methods for potatoes are so versatile and potatoes provide a neutral canvas for different spices and flavor profiles, they are well-suited to a wide range of cultures and cuisines. This culinary flexibility makes potatoes a wonderful addition to communities across the globe, which gives more and more populations access to healthy food.
Want to Contribute to Worldwide Food Security?
The humble potato truly is a wonder that increases access to healthy food for millions of people around the world. Combining nutritional excellence, affordability, availability, and agricultural adaptability, potatoes are a vital asset in the global fight against hunger.
Farmers and other food producers are working to ensure this key food source continues to be widely available to all by exploring economically and environmentally sustainable methods of producing this versatile food staple.
How can you contribute? When you support local farmers by buying local produce and actively engaging in educational programs or farm tours, you help support their livelihood. They, in turn, can continue to contribute to worldwide food security by improving growing methods, partnering with groups that feed vulnerable populations, and producing robust crops.
So, whenever possible, buy fresh produce from local suppliers, educate yourself and your family about local agriculture, and incorporate delicious potatoes into your healthy diet.
Jared H. Furness loves sports! He writes about football, basketball, and baseball. He looks at player stats and tells fun, easy stories. His articles are very simple to read. Everyone can understand them! You can find his writing on big sports websites. He talks about how players play, exciting game moments, and smart plans. For example, he writes about games like Boston College Eagles vs. UVA and Arizona Diamondbacks vs. Miami Marlins. Jared writes his own stories, and they follow Google’s rules. They’re easy to find on Google and never copied. Fans and experts love his stories about stars like Bobby Witt Jr. and fun EuroLeague basketball moments. Jared makes sports writing super fun and clear!