The Inca Indians in Peru were the first to cultivate potatoes around 8,000 BC to 5,000 B.C.
Spanish conquistadores were the first Europeans to encounter potatoes, in South America in the 1530s.
French pharmacist Antoine-Augustin Parmentier was captured by the Prussians during the Seven Years' War and was fed a constant diet of potatoes, which the French considered as hog feed at the time. After surviving and emerging in good health, he made it his life's mission to promote the merits of potatoes in his country. Thanks to his efforts, potatoes were declared edible in 1772.
Potatoes produce two to four times as many calories per acre as cereal crops.
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