0_Wizard
The potato while delicious is also the worlds fourth largest food crop! 
It is the world's fourth-largest food crop, following maize, wheat, and rice.
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Potato
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Potato
The potato is a starchy, tuberous crop from the perennial nightshade Solanum tuberosum. "Potato" may be applied to both the plant and the edible tuber. Potato has become a staple food in many parts of the world and an integral part of much of the world's food supply. It is the world's fourth-largest food crop, following maize, wheat, and rice. The green leaves and green skins of tubers exposed to the light are toxic. In the Andes, where the species is indigenous, some other closely related species are cultivated. Potatoes were introduced to Europe in the second half of the 16th century by the Spanish.
Sweet potato
The sweet potato ("Ipomoea batatas") is a dicotyledonous plant that belongs to the bindweed or morning glory family, Convolvulaceae. Its large, starchy, sweet-tasting, tuberous roots are a root vegetable. The young leaves and shoots are sometimes eaten as greens. The sweet potato is only distantly related to the potato ("Solanum tuberosum") and does not belong to the nightshade family, Solanaceae, but both families belong to the same taxonomic order, the Solanales. The plant is a herbaceous perennial vine, bearing alternate heart-shaped or palmately lobed leaves and medium-sized sympetalous flowers.
Food security
Food security is a condition related to the supply of food, and individuals' access to it. There is evidence of granaries being in use over 10,000 years ago, with central authorities in civilizations including ancient China and ancient Egypt being known to release food from storage in times of famine. At the 1974 World Food Conference the term "food security" was defined with an emphasis on supply. Food security, they said, is the "availability at all times of adequate world food supplies of basic foodstuffs to sustain a steady expansion of food consumption and to offset fluctuations in production and prices".
Colocasia esculenta
Colocasia esculenta is a tropical plant grown primarily for its edible corms, the root vegetables most commonly known as taro. It is believed to be one of the earliest cultivated plants. Linnaeus originally described two species which are now known as "Colocasia esculenta" and "Colocasia antiquorum" of the cultivated plants that are known by many names including eddoes, dasheen, taro and madumbi, but many later botanists consider them all to be members of a single, very variable species, the correct name for which is "Colocasia esculenta". Taro () commonly refers to the plant "Colocasia esculenta", the most widely cultivated species of several plants in the Araceae family which are used as vegetables for their corms, leaves, and petioles.
History of the potato
The potato was first domesticated in the region of modern-day southern Peru and extreme northwestern Bolivia between 8000 and 5000 BC. It has since spread around the world and become a staple crop in many countries. Cultivation of potatoes in South America may go back 10,000 years, yet the tubers do not preserve well in archaeological record, and there are problems with exact identification of those that are found. The earliest archaeologically verified potato tuber remains have been found at the coastal site of Ancón (central Peru), dating to 2500 BC. Potatoes dating to about 2000 BC have been found at Huaynuma, in the Casma Valley of Peru, and early potatoes dating to 800-500 BC were also uncovered at the Altiplano site of Chiripa on the east side of Lake Titicaca.
Phytophthora infestans
Phytophthora infestans is an oomycete or water mold, a microorganism which causes the serious potato and tomato disease known as late blight or potato blight. (Early blight, caused by "Alternaria solani", is also often called "potato blight".) Late blight was a major culprit in the 1840s European, the 1845 Irish, and the 1846 Highland potato famines. The organism can also infect some other members of the Solanaceae. The pathogen is favored by moist, cool environments: sporulation is optimal at 12–18°C in water-saturated or nearly saturated environments, and zoospore production is favored at temperatures below 15° C. Lesion growth rates are typically optimal at a slightly warmer temperature range of 20 to 24° C.  The genus name "Phytophthora" comes from the Greek φυτό-(phyto), meaning : "plant" - plus the Greek φθορά (phthora), meaning : "decay, ruin, perish".
Genetically modified crops
Genetically modified crops (GMCs, GM crops, or biotech crops) are plants used in agriculture, the DNA of which has been modified using genetic engineering methods. In most cases, the aim is to introduce a new trait to the plant which does not occur naturally in the species. Examples in food crops include resistance to certain pests, diseases, or environmental conditions, reduction of spoilage, or resistance to chemical treatments (e.g. resistance to a herbicide), or improving the nutrient profile of the crop. Examples in non-food crops include production of pharmaceutical agents, biofuels, and other industrially useful goods, as well as for bioremediation.