The potato is a starchy, tuberous crop from the perennial Solanum tuberosum of the Solanaceae family (also known as the nightshades). The word potato may refer to the plant itself as well as the edible tuber. In the region of the Andes, there are some other closely related cultivated potato species. Potatoes were first introduced outside the Andes region four centuries ago, and have become an integral part of much of the world's cuisine. It is the world's fourth-largest food crop, following rice, wheat, and maize. Long-term storage of potatoes requires specialised care in cold warehouses.

Wild potato species occur throughout the Americas, from the United States to Uruguay. The potato was originally believed to have been domesticated independently in multiple locations, but later genetic testing of the wide variety of cultivars and wild species proved a single origin for potatoes in the area of present-day southern Peru (from a species in the Solanum brevicaule complex), where they were domesticated 7,000–10,000 years ago. Following centuries of selective breeding, there are now over a thousand different types of potatoes. Of these subspecies, a variety that at one point grew in the Chiloé Archipelago (the potato's south-central Chilean sub-center of origin) left its germplasm on over 99% of the cultivated potatoes worldwide.

Following the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire, the Spanish introduced the potato to Europe in the second half of the 16th century. The staple was subsequently conveyed by European mariners to territories and ports throughout the world. The potato was slow to be adopted by distrustful European farmers, but soon enough it became an important food staple and field crop that played a major role in the European 19th century population boom. However, lack of genetic diversity, due to the very limited number of varieties initially introduced, left the crop vulnerable to disease. In 1845, a plant disease known as late blight, caused by the fungus-like oomycete Phytophthora infestans, spread rapidly through the poorer communities of western Ireland, resulting in the crop failures that led to the Great Irish Famine. Nonetheless, thousands of varieties persist in the Andes, where over 100 cultivars might be found in a single valley, and a dozen or more might be maintained by a single agricultural household.

The annual diet of an average global citizen in the first decade of the 21st century included about of potato. However, the local importance of potato is extremely variable and rapidly changing. It remains an essential crop in Europe (especially eastern and central Europe), where per capita production is still the highest in the world, but the most rapid expansion over the past few decades has occurred in southern and eastern Asia. China is now the world's largest potato-producing country, and nearly a third of the world's potatoes are harvested in China and India.

Etymology

The English word potato comes from Spanish patata (the name used in Spain). The Spanish Royal Academy says the Spanish word is a compound of the Taino batata (sweet potato) and the Quechua papa (potato). The name potato originally referred to a type of sweet potato rather than the other way around, although there is actually no close relationship between the two plants. The English confused the two plants one for the other. In many of the chronicles detailing agriculture and plants, no distinction is made between the two. The 16th-century English herbalist John Gerard used the terms "bastard potatoes" and "Virginia potatoes" for this species, and referred to sweet potatoes as "common potatoes". Potatoes are occasionally referred to as "Irish potatoes" or "white potatoes" in the United States, to distinguish them from sweet potatoes.

The name spud for a small potato comes from the digging of soil (or a hole) prior to the planting of potatoes. The word is of unknown origin and was originally (c. 1440) used as a term for a short knife or dagger, probably related to Dutch spyd and/or the Latin "spad-" root meaning "sword"; cf. Spanish "espada", English "spade" and "spadroon". The word spud traces back to the 16th century. It subsequently transferred over to a variety of digging tools. Around 1845 it transferred over to the tuber itself. The origin of "spud" has erroneously been attributed to a 19th century activist group dedicated to keeping the potato out of Britain, calling itself The Society for the Prevention of an Unwholesome Diet. It was Mario Pei's 1949 The Story of Language that can be blamed for the false origin. Pei writes, "the potato, for its part, was in disrepute some centuries ago. Some Englishmen who did not fancy potatoes formed a Society for the Prevention of Unwholesome Diet. The initials of the main words in this title gave rise to spud." Like most other pre-20th century acronymic origins, this one is false.

Characteristics

Potato plants are herbaceous perennials that grow about 60 cm (24 in) high, depending on variety, the culms dying back after flowering. They bear white, pink, red, blue, or purple flowers with yellow stamens. In general, the tubers of varieties with white flowers have white skins, while those of varieties with colored flowers tend to have pinkish skins. Potatoes are cross-pollinated mostly by insects, including bumblebees, which carry pollen from other potato plants, but a substantial amount of self-fertilizing occurs as well. Tubers form in response to decreasing day length, although this tendency has been minimized in commercial varieties. After potato plants flower, some varieties produce small green fruits that resemble green cherry tomatoes, each containing up to 300 true seeds. Potato fruit contains large amounts of the toxic alkaloid solanine and is therefore unsuitable for consumption. All new potato varieties are grown from seeds, also called "true seed" or "botanical seed" to distinguish it from seed tubers. By finely chopping the fruit and soaking it in water, the seeds separate from the flesh by sinking to the bottom after about a day (the remnants of the fruit float). Any potato variety can also be propagated vegetatively by planting tubers, pieces of tubers, cut to include at least one or two eyes, or also by cuttings, a practice used in greenhouses for the production of healthy seed tubers. Some commercial potato varieties do not produce seeds at all (they bear imperfect flowers) and are propagated only from tuber pieces. Confusingly, these tubers or tuber pieces are called "seed potatoes".

Genetics

There are about five thousand potato varieties worldwide. Three thousand of them are found in the Andes alone, mainly in Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Chile, and Colombia. They belong to eight or nine species, depending on the taxonomic school. Apart from the five thousand cultivated varieties, there are about 200 wild species and subspecies, many of which can be cross-bred with cultivated varieties, which has been done repeatedly to transfer resistances to certain pests and diseases from the gene pool of wild species to the gene pool of cultivated potato species. Genetically modified varieties have met public resistance in the United States and in the European Union.

The major species grown worldwide is Solanum tuberosum (a tetraploid with 48 chromosomes), and modern varieties of this species are the most widely cultivated. There are also four diploid species (with 24 chromosomes): S. stenotomum, S. phureja, S. goniocalyx, and S. ajanhuiri. There are two triploid species (with 36 chromosomes): S. chaucha and S. juzepczukii. There is one pentaploid cultivated species (with 60 chromosomes): S. curtilobum. There are two major subspecies of Solanum tuberosum: andigena, or Andean; and tuberosum, or Chilean. The Andean potato is adapted to the short-day conditions prevalent in the mountainous equatorial and tropical regions where it originated. The Chilean potato, native to the Chiloé Archipelago, is adapted to the long-day conditions prevalent in the higher latitude region of southern Chile.

The International Potato Center, based in Lima, Peru, holds an ISO-accredited collection of potato germplasm. The international Potato Genome Sequencing Consortium announced in 2009 that they had achieved a draft sequence of the potato genome. The potato genome contains 12 chromosomes and 860 million base pairs making it a medium-sized plant genome. Above 99 percent of all current varieties of potatoes currently grown are direct descendants of a subspecies that once grew in the lowlands of south-central Chile. Nonetheless, genetic testing of the wide variety of cultivars and wild species affirms that all potato subspecies derive from a single origin in the area of present-day southern Peru (from a species in the Solanum brevicaule complex).

Most modern potatoes grown in North America arrived through European settlement and not independently from the South American sources. However, at least one wild potato species, Solanum fendleri, is found as far north as Texas and used in breeding for resistance to a nematode species that attacks cultivated potatoes. A secondary center of genetic variability of the potato is Mexico, where important wild species that have been used extensively in modern breeding are found, such as the hexaploid Solanum demissum, as a source of resistance to the devastating late blight disease. Another relative native to this region, Solanum bulbocastanum, has been used to genetically engineer the potato to resist potato blight.

Potatoes yield abundantly with little effort, and adapt readily to diverse climates as long as the climate is cool and moist enough for the plants to gather sufficient water from the soil to form the starchy tubers. Potatoes do not keep very well in storage and are vulnerable to molds that feed on the stored tubers, quickly turning them rotten. By contrast, grain can be stored for several years without much risk of rotting.

History

Peru

The potato originated in the region of southern Peru. Basque fishermen from Spain used potatoes as ships stores for their voyages across the Atlantic in the 16th century, and introduced the tuber to western Ireland, where they landed to dry their cod. In 1553, in the book Crónica del Peru, Pedro Cieza de Leon mentions he saw it in Quito, Popayán, and Pasto in 1538. The English privateer Francis Drake, returning from his circumnavigation, or Sir Walter Raleigh's employee Thomas Harriot are commonly credited with introducing potatoes into England. In 1588, botanist Carolus Clusius made a painting of what he called "Papas Peruanorum" from a specimen in Belgium; in 1601 he reported that potatoes were in common use in northern Italy for animal fodder and for human consumption.

The Spanish had an empire across Europe, and brought potatoes for their armies. Peasants along the way adopted the crop, which was less often pillaged by marauding armies than above-ground stores of grain. Across most of northern Europe, where open fields prevailed, potatoes were strictly confined to small garden plots because field agriculture was strictly governed by custom that prescribed seasonal rhythms for plowing, sowing, harvesting and grazing animals on fallow and stubble. This meant that potatoes were barred from large-scale cultivation because the rules allowed only grain to be planted in the open fields. In France and Germany government officials and noble landowners promoted the rapid conversion of fallow land into potato fields after 1750. The potato thus became an important staple crop in northern Europe. Famines in the early 1770s contributed to its acceptance, as did government policies in several European countries and climate change during the Little Ice Age, when traditional crops in this region did not produce as reliably as before. At times when and where most other crops failed, potatoes could still typically be relied upon to contribute adequately to food supplies during colder years.

In France " At the end of the 16th century, the potato had not only been introduced in the Franche-Comté ... equally in the Vosges of Lorraine, probably coming from Alsace. 'It spread greatly there in the middle of the 17th century ... Some authors also remark its introduction from England into Flanders during the wars against Louis XIV ... In the 18th century ... Some instructions to cultivators spread by the Agricultural Bureaus contribute to the potato's development ... To such a point that in the 1785 edition of the Bon Jardinier' it is written: 'There is no vegetable about which so much has been written and so much enthusiasm has been shown ... The poor should be quite content with this foodstuff' ... in 1758 in Saint-Dié(Vosges) a production of about 2,000 tons was realized" It had widely replaced the turnip and rutabaga by the 19th century.

19th century Europe

French physician Antoine Parmentier studied the potato intensely and in Examen chymique des pommes de terres (Paris, 1774) showed their enormous nutritional value. King Louis XVI and his court eagerly promoted the new crop, with Queen Marie Antoinette even wearing a headdress of potato flowers at a fancy dress ball. The annual potato crop of France soared to 21 million hectoliters in 1815 and 117 million in 1840, allowing a concomitant growth in population while avoiding the Malthusian trap. Although potatoes had become widely familiar in Russia by 1800, they were confined to garden plots until the grain failure in 1838–1839 persuaded peasants and landlords in central and northern Russia to devote their fallow fields to raising potatoes. Potatoes yielded from two to four times more calories per acre than grain did, and eventually came to dominate the food supply in eastern Europe. Boiled or baked potatoes were cheaper than rye bread, just as nutritious, and did not require a gristmill for grinding. On the other hand cash-oriented landlords realized that grain was much easier to ship, store and sell, so both grain and potatoes coexisted.

Throughout Europe, the most important new food in the 19th century was the potato, which had three major advantages over other foods for the consumer: its lower rate of spoilage, its bulk (which easily satisfied hunger), and its cheapness. The crop slowly spread across Europe, such that, for example, by 1845 it occupied one-third of Irish arable land. Potatoes comprised about 10% of the caloric intake of Europeans. Along with several other foods that either originated in the Americas or were successfully grown or harvested there, potatoes sustained European populations.

In Britain, the potato promoted economic development by underpinning the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century. It served as a cheap source of calories and nutrients that was easy for urban workers to cultivate on small backyard plots. Potatoes became popular in the north of England, where coal was readily available, so a potato-driven population boom provided ample workers for the new factories. Marxist Friedrich Engels even declared that the potato was the equal of iron for its "historically revolutionary role. The Dutch potato-starch industry grew rapidly in the 19th century, especially under the leadership of entrepreneur Willem Albert Scholten (1819–92).

Ireland

In Ireland, the expansion of potato cultivation was due entirely to the landless laborers, renting tiny plots from landowners, who were interested only in raising cattle or in producing grain for market. A single acre of potatoes and the milk of a single cow was enough to feed a whole Irish family a monotonous but nutritionally adequate diet for a healthy, vigorous (and desperately poor) rural population. Often even poor families grew enough extra potatoes to feed a pig that they could sell for cash.

A lack of genetic diversity from the low number of varieties left the crop vulnerable to disease. In 1845, a plant disease known as late blight, caused by the fungus-like oomycete Phytophthora infestans, spread rapidly through the poorer communities of western Ireland, resulting in the crop failures that led to the Great Irish Famine.

The Lumper potato, widely cultivated in western and southern Ireland before and during the great famine, was bland, wet, and poorly resistant to the potato blight, but yielded large crops and usually provided adequate calories for peasants and laborers. Heavy dependence on this potato led to disaster when the potato blight quickly turned newly harvested potatoes into a putrid mush. The Irish Famine in the western and southern parts of the British-controlled island of Ireland, 1845–49, was a catastrophic failure in the food supply that led to approximately a million deaths from famine and (especially) diseases that attacked weakened bodies, and to massive emigration to Britain, the U.S. and Canada.

Canary Islands Study

Shipping records from 1567 make the Canary Islands islands off the shores northwest Africa the first known home to potatoes outside of Central and South America. In 2007, David Spooner, a horticulturist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and a researcher at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, decided to analyze potatoes on the island. He found that some potatoes on the Canary Islands had genetic markers of Andean origins and some had markers indicating Chilean roots. Two subspecies of these wild spuds, one found in Chile, the other in the Andean highlands of Peru, look very similar but differ genetically. Most scientists have long assumed that European potatoes, the foundation for all modern cultivated potatoes, come from the Chilean variety, because Chilean lowlands resemble Europe's environment most closely. According to Spooner, "The idea that it was a single introduction from Chile just doesn't stand up". Spooner suggests that different varieties could have been brought from South America at various times.

Africa

It is generally believed that Potatoes also entered Africa with colonists, who consumed them as a vegetable rather than as a staple starch. Shipping records from 1567 make the Canary Islands islands off the shores northwest Africa the first known home to potatoes outside of Central and South America though. Like in other continents, in spite of its advantages as an antifamine, high-elevation alternative to grain, the potato was at first resisted by local farmers who thought it was poisonous. The colonialists also promoted it as a low cost food to them and so it was a symbol of domination. In former European colonies of Africa, potatoes were initially consumed only occasionally, but increased production made them a staple in certain areas. In Africa, as in Europe, the popularity of the tubers increased in wartime because they could be stored in the ground.

In present day Africa it has been a vegetable or co-staple crop.

Uses

In central African regions of relatively high production, potatoes are beaten with grains and legumes into a stiff porridge, or boiled or roasted and eaten whole.

Industrialization of potatoes

Like in many parts of the world, diet has been globalized and it is currently also used to make industrialized produce like produced potato fries (chips), chips (crisps).

Rwandan potatoes

In the upper reaches of Rwanda, potatoes took root as a new staple food crop and contributed to subsistence, surplus, and population expansion. Prior to its most recent civil conflict, Rwanda in some localities witnessed per capita consumption as high as 153 to 200 kg per year — higher than that in any Western European country, including Ireland. There, local farmers in recent years have developed the potato as a cash crop — the result of the introduction of several new varieties brought back by migrant laborers from Uganda, the diffusion of other varieties from Kenya, and the comparative advantage of raising potatoes relative to other cash or subsistence crops.

Asia

The potato diffused widely after 1600, becoming a major food resource in Europe and East Asia. Following its introduction into China toward the end of the Ming dynasty, the potato immediately became a delicacy of the imperial family. After the middle period of the Qianlong reign (1735–96), population increases and a subsequent need to increase grain yields coupled with greater peasant geographic mobility led to the rapid spread of potato cultivation throughout China, and it was acclimated to local natural conditions.

Boomgaard (2003) looks at the adoption of various root and tuber crops in Indonesia throughout the colonial period and examines the chronology and reasons for progressive adoption of foreign crops: sweet potato, Irish potato, bengkuang (yam beans), and cassava.

The potato was introduced in the Philippines during the late 16th century, and to Java and China during the 17th century. It was well established as a crop in India by the late 18th century and in Africa by the mid-20th century.

US and Canada

Potatoes were planted in Idaho as early as 1838; by 1900 the state's production exceeded a million bushels (about 27,000 tonnes| name="lb/bshl"}}). Prior to 1910, the crops were stored in barns or root cellars, but, by the 1920s, potato cellars came into use. U.S. potato production has increased steadily; two-thirds of the crop comes from Idaho, Washington, Oregon, Colorado, and Maine, and potato growers have strengthened their position in both domestic and foreign markets.

By the 1960s, the Canadian Potato Research Centre in Fredericton, New Brunswick, was one of the top six potato research institutes in the world. Established in 1912 as a dominion experimental station, the station began in the 1930s to concentrate on breeding new varieties of disease-resistant potatoes. In the 1950s–1960s, the growth of the French fry industry in New Brunswick led to a focus on developing varieties for the industry. By the 1970s, the station's potato research was broader than ever before, but the station and its research programs had changed, as emphasis was placed on serving industry rather than potato farmers in general. Scientists at the station even began describing their work using engineering language rather than scientific prose. Potatoes are Canada's most important vegetable crop; they are grown commercially in all its provinces, led by Prince Edward Island.

Role in world food supply

The United Nations FAO reports that the world production of potatoes in 2008 was 314 million tonnes. The annual diet of an average global citizen in the first decade of the 21st century included about 33 kg (or 73 lb) of potato. However, the local importance of potato is extremely variable and rapidly changing. It remains an essential crop in Europe (especially eastern and central Europe), where per capita production is still the highest in the world, but the most rapid expansion over the past few decades has occurred in southern and eastern Asia. China is now the world's largest potato-producing country, and nearly a third of the world's potatoes are harvested in China and India.

In 2008, several international organizations highlighted the potato's role in world food production, in the face of developing economic problems. They cited its potential derived from its status as a cheap and plentiful crop that grows in a wide variety of climates and locales. Due to perishability, only about 5% of the world's potato crop is traded internationally; its minimal presence in world financial markets contributed to its stable pricing during the 2007–2008 world food price crisis. Thus, the United Nations officially declared 2008 as the International Year of the Potato, to raise its profile in developing nations, calling the crop a "hidden treasure". This followed the International Rice Year in 2004.

Nutrition

{{nutritionalvalue | name=Potato, raw, with skin | water=75 g | kJ=321 | protein=2 g | carbs=19 g | fat=0.1 g | fiber=2.2 g | starch=15 g | vitA_mg=5 | thiamin_mg=0.08 | riboflavin_mg=0.03 | vitB6_mg=0.25 | vitC_mg=20 | niacin_mg=1.1 | iron_mg=1.8 | calcium_mg=12 | magnesium_mg=23 | phosphorus_mg=57 | potassium_mg=421 | sodium_mg=6 }}

The potato contains vitamins and minerals, as well as an assortment of phytochemicals, such as carotenoids and natural phenols. Chlorogenic acid constitutes up to 90% of the potato tuber natural phenols. Others found in potatoes are 4-O-caffeoylquinic (crypto-chlorogenic acid), 5-O-caffeoylquinic (neo-chlorogenic acid), 3,4-dicaffeoylquinic and 3,5-dicaffeoylquinic acids. A medium-size 150 g (5.3 oz) potato with the skin provides 27 mg of vitamin C (45% of the Daily Value (DV)), 620 mg of potassium (18% of DV), 0.2 mg vitamin B₆ (10% of DV) and trace amounts of thiamin, riboflavin, folate, niacin, magnesium, phosphorus, iron, and zinc. The fiber content of a potato with skin (2 g) is equivalent to that of many whole grain breads, pastas, and cereals.

In terms of nutrition, the potato is best known for its carbohydrate content (approximately 26 grams in a medium potato). The predominant form of this carbohydrate is starch. A small but significant portion of this starch is resistant to digestion by enzymes in the stomach and small intestine, and so reaches the large intestine essentially intact. This resistant starch is considered to have similar physiological effects and health benefits as fiber: It provides bulk, offers protection against colon cancer, improves glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity, lowers plasma cholesterol and triglyceride concentrations, increases satiety, and possibly even reduces fat storage. The amount of resistant starch in potatoes depends much on preparation methods. Cooking and then cooling potatoes significantly increases resistant starch. For example, cooked potato starch contains about 7% resistant starch, which increases to about 13% upon cooling.

The nutrients of the potato seem to be fairly evenly distributed between the flesh and the skin. For a medium potato, with and without the skin, nutritiondata.com gives the following: {|class="wikitable" |- !Nutrient !Without skin (156 g) (% RDA) !With skin (173 g) (% RDA) |- !Vitamin C |33 |28 |- !Thiamin |11 |7 |- !Niacin |11 |12 |- !Vitamin B₆ |23 |27 |- !Folate |4 |12 |- !Pantothenic Acid |9 |7 |- !Iron |3 |10 |- !Magnesium |10 |12 |- !Potassium |17 |26 |- !Copper |17 |10 |- !Dietary Fiber |9 |15 |}

The cooking method used can significantly impact the nutrient availability of the potato.

Potatoes are often broadly classified as high on the glycemic index (GI) and so are often excluded from the diets of individuals trying to follow a low-GI diet. In fact, the GI of potatoes can vary considerably depending on type (such as red, russet, white, or Prince Edward), origin (where it was grown), preparation methods (i.e., cooking method, whether it is eaten hot or cold, whether it is mashed or cubed or consumed whole, etc.), and with what it is consumed (i.e., the addition of various high-fat or high-protein toppings).

Potatoes are not considered by the NHS as counting towards the five portions of fruit and vegetables diet.

Toxicity

Potatoes contain toxic compounds known as glycoalkaloids, of which the most prevalent are solanine and chaconine. Solanine is also found in other plants in the family Solanaceae, which includes such plants as the deadly nightshade (Atropa belladonna), henbane (Hyoscyamus niger) and tobacco (Nicotiana) as well as the potato, eggplant, and tomato. This toxin affects the nervous system, causing weakness and confusion.

These compounds, which protect the plant from its predators, are, in general, concentrated in its leaves, stems, sprouts, and fruits. Exposure to light, physical damage, and age increase glycoalkaloid content within the tuber; the highest concentrations occur just underneath the skin. Cooking at high temperatures (over 170 °C or 340 °F) partly destroys these. The concentration of glycoalkaloid in wild potatoes suffices to produce toxic effects in humans. Glycoalkaloids may cause headaches, diarrhea, cramps, and in severe cases coma and death; however, poisoning from potatoes occurs very rarely. Light exposure causes greening from chlorophyll synthesis, thus giving a visual clue as to areas of the tuber that may have become more toxic; however, this does not provide a definitive guide, as greening and glycoalkaloid accumulation can occur independently of each other. Some varieties of potato contain greater glycoalkaloid concentrations than others; breeders developing new varieties test for this, and sometimes have to discard an otherwise promising cultivar. Breeders try to keep solanine levels below 200 mg/kg (200 ppmw). However, when these commercial varieties turn green, even they can approach concentrations of solanine of 1000 mg/kg (1000 ppmw). In normal potatoes, analysis has shown solanine levels may be as little as 3.5% of the breeders' maximum, with 7–187 mg/kg being found.

The U.S. National Toxicology Program suggests that the average American consume at most 12.5 mg/day of solanine from potatoes (the toxic dose is actually several times this, depending on body weight). Douglas L. Holt, the State Extension Specialist for Food Safety at the University of Missouri, notes that no reported cases of potato-source solanine poisoning have occurred in the U.S. in the last 50 years, and most cases involved eating green potatoes or drinking potato-leaf tea.

Growth and cultivation

Potato growth has been divided into five phases. During the first phase, sprouts emerge and root growth begins. During the second, photosynthesis begins as the plant develops leaves and branches. New tubers develop during the third phase, which is often (but not always) associated with flowering. Tuber formation halts when soil temperatures reach ; hence potatoes are considered a cool-season crop. Tuber bulking occurs during the fourth phase, when the plant begins investing the majority of its resources in its newly formed tubers. At this stage, several factors are critical to yield: optimal soil moisture and temperature, soil nutrient availability and balance, and resistance to pest attacks. The final phase is maturation: The plant canopy dies back, the tuber skins harden, and their sugars convert to starches.

New tubers may arise at the soil surface. Since exposure to light leads to greening of the skins and the development of solanine, growers are interested in covering such tubers. Commercial growers usually address this problem by piling additional soil around the base of the plant as it grows ("hilling", or in British English "earthing up"). An alternative method used by home gardeners and smaller-scale growers involves covering the growing area with organic mulches such as straw or with plastic sheets.

Correct potato husbandry can be an arduous task in some circumstances. Good ground preparation, harrowing, plowing, and rolling are always needed, along with a little grace from the weather and a good source of water. Three successive plowings, with associated harrowing and rolling, are desirable before planting. Eliminating all root-weeds is desirable in potato cultivation. In general, the potatoes themselves are grown from the eyes of another potato and not from seed. Home gardeners often plant a piece of potato with two or three eyes in a hill of mounded soil. Commercial growers plant potatoes as a row crop using seed tubers, young plants or microtubers and may mound the entire row. Seed potato crops are 'rogued' in some countries to eliminate diseased plants or those of a different variety from the seed crop.

Potatoes are sensitive to heavy frosts, which damage them in the ground. Even cold weather makes potatoes more susceptible to bruising and possibly later rotting, which can quickly ruin a large stored crop.

At harvest time, gardeners usually dig up potatoes with a long-handled, three-prong "grape" (or graip), i.e., a spading fork, or a potato hook, which is similar to the graip but with tines at a 90 degree angle to the handle. In larger plots, the plow is the fastest implement for unearthing potatoes. Commercial harvesting is typically done with large potato harvesters, which scoop up the plant and surrounding earth. This is transported up an apron chain consisting of steel links several feet wide, which separates some of the dirt. The chain deposits into an area where further separation occurs. Different designs use different systems at this point. The most complex designs use vine choppers and shakers, along with a blower system or "Flying Willard" to separate the potatoes from the plant. The result is then usually run past workers who continue to sort out plant material, stones, and rotten potatoes before the potatoes are continuously delivered to a wagon or truck. Further inspection and separation occurs when the potatoes are unloaded from the field vehicles and put into storage.

Immature potatoes may be sold as "New Potatoes" and are particularly valued for taste. These are often harvested by the home gardener or farmer by "grabbling", i.e. pulling out the young tubers by hand while leaving the plant in place.

Potatoes are usually cured after harvest to improve skin-set. Skin-set is the process by which the skin of the potato becomes resistant to skinning damage. Potato tubers may be susceptible to skinning at harvest and suffer skinning damage during harvest and handling operations. Curing allows the skin to fully set and any wounds to heal. Wound-healing prevents infection and water-loss from the tubers during storage. Curing is normally done at relatively warm temperatures to with high humidity and good gas-exchange if at all possible.

Storage

Storage facilities need to be carefully designed to keep the potatoes alive and slow the natural process of decomposition, which involves the breakdown of starch. It is crucial that the storage area is dark, well ventilated and for long-term storage maintained at temperatures near . For short-term storage before cooking, temperatures of about to are preferred.

On the other hand, temperatures below convert potatoes' starch into sugar, which alters their taste and cooking qualities and leads to higher acrylamide levels in the cooked product, especially in deep-fried dishesthe discovery of acrylamides in starchy foods in 2002 has led to many international health concerns as they are believed to be possible carcinogens and their occurrence in cooked foods are currently under study as possible influences in potential health problems.

Under optimum conditions possible in commercial warehouses, potatoes can be stored for up to ten to twelve months. When stored in homes, the shelf life is usually only a few weeks. If potatoes develop green areas or start to sprout, these areas should be trimmed before using.

Commercial storage of potatoes involves several phases: drying of surface moisture; a wound healing phase at 85% to 95% relative humidity and temperatures below ; a staged cooling phase; a holding phase; and a reconditioning phase, during which the tubers are slowly warmed. Mechanical ventilation is used at various points during the process to prevent condensation and accumulation of carbon dioxide.

When stored in the home, mature potatoes are optimally kept at room temperature, where they last 1 to 2 weeks in a paper bag, in a dry, cool, dark, well ventilated location. If mature potatoes are refrigerated, dark spots can occur and conversion of starch into sugar can give rise to an unpleasant sweet flavour when cooked. Only new potatoes can be refrigerated, and should be kept so, where they have a shelf life of 1 week. If kept in too warm a temperature, both mature and new potatoes will sprout and shrivel. Exposure to light causes them to turn green. Also, potatoes absorb odours produced by pears.

Varieties

While there are close to 4000 different varieties of potato, it has been bred into many standard or well-known varieties, each of which has particular agricultural or culinary attributes. In general, varieties are categorized into a few main groups, such as russets, reds, whites, yellows (also called Yukons) and purples—based on common characteristics. Around 80 varieties are commercially available in the UK. For culinary purposes, varieties are often described in terms of their waxiness. Floury, or mealy (baking) potatoes have more starch (20–22%) than waxy (boiling) potatoes (16–18%). The distinction may also arise from variation in the comparative ratio of two potato starch compounds: amylose and amylopectin. Amylose, a long-chain molecule, diffuses out of the starch granule when cooked in water, and lends itself to dishes where the potato is mashed. Varieties that contain a slightly higher amylopectin content, a highly branched molecule, help the potato retain its shape when boiled.

The European Cultivated Potato Database (ECPD) is an online collaborative database of potato variety descriptions, updated and maintained by the Scottish Agricultural Science Agency within the framework of the European Cooperative Programme for Crop Genetic Resources Networks (ECP/GR)—which is organised by the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI).

Popular varieties (cultivars) include:

Adirondack Blue

Adirondack Red

Agata

Almond

Amandine

Anya

Arran Victory

Atlantic

Bamberg

Belle de Fontenay

BF-15

Bildtstar

Bintje

Blue Congo Bonnotte

Cabritas

Camota

Chelina

Chiloé

Cielo

Clavela Blanca

Désirée

Fianna

Fingerling

Flava

Golden Wonder

Innovator

Jersey Royal

Kerr's Pink

Kestrel

King Edward

Kipfler

Lady Balfour

Linda

Marfona

Maris Piper

Marquis

Nicola

Pachacoña

Pink Eye

Pink Fir Apple

Primura

Ratte

Red Norland

Red Pontiac

Rooster

Russet Burbank

Russet Norkotah

Selma

Shepody

Sieglinde Sirco

Spunta

Stobrawa

Vivaldi

Vitelotte

Yellow Finn

Yukon Gold

Blue varieties

The blue potato originated in South America. It has purple skin and flesh, which becomes blue once cooked. It has a slight whitish scab that seems to be present in all samples. The variety, called "Cream of the Crop", has been introduced into Ireland and has proved popular.

A mutation in the varieties' P locus causes production of the antioxidant anthocyanin.

Genetically-modified varieties

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. The starch content of 'Amflora', a waxy potato variety from the German chemical company BASF, has been modified to contain only amylopectin, making it inedible but more useful for industrial purposes. In 2010, the European Commission cleared the way for 'Amflora' to be grown in the European Union. Nevertheless, under EU rules, individual countries have the right to decide whether they will allow this potato to be grown on their territory. Commercial planting of 'Amflora' was expected in the Czech Republic and Germany in the spring of 2010, and Sweden and the Netherlands in subsequent years. Another GM potato variety developed by BASF is 'Fortuna'. In 2010, a team of Indian scientists announced they had developed a genetically modified potato with 35 to 60% more protein than non-modified potatoes. Protein content was boosted by adding the gene AmA1 from the grain amaranth. They also found 15 to 25% greater crop yields with these potatoes. The researchers expected that a key market for the GM potato would be the developing world, where more than a billion people are chronically undernourished.

New non-GM varieties

Other new potato cultivars are conventionally bred. For example, on 22 September 2007, Benguet State University (BSU) announced that four potato varieties—'Igorota', 'Solibao', 'Ganza' and one not yet officially named—possess more than 18% dry matter content required by fast-food chains to make crispy and sturdy French fries. Since 2005, a natural 100% amylopectin waxy potato variety called 'Eliane' is being cultivated by the starch company AVEBE.

Some horticulturists sell chimeras, made by grafting a tomato plant onto a potato plant, producing both edible tomatoes and potatoes. This practice is not very widespread.

Pests

The historically significant Phytophthora infestans (late blight) remains an ongoing problem in Europe and the United States. Other potato diseases include Rhizoctonia, Sclerotinia, black leg, powdery mildew, powdery scab, leafroll virus, and purple top.

Insects that commonly transmit potato diseases or damage the plants include the Colorado potato beetle, the potato tuber moth, the green peach aphid (Myzus persicae), the potato aphid, beetleafhoppers, thrips, and mites. The potato root nematode is a microscopic worm that thrives on the roots, thus causing the potato plants to wilt. Since its eggs can survive in the soil for several years, crop rotation is recommended.

Pesticides

During the crop year 2008, many of the certified organic potatoes produced in the United Kingdom and certified by the Soil Association as organic were sprayed with a copper pesticide to control potato blight (Phytophthora infestans). According to the Soil Association, the total copper that can be applied to organic land is 6 kg/ha/year.

According to an Environmental Working Group analysis of USDA and FDA pesticide residue tests performed from 2000 through 2008, 84% of the 2,216 tested potato samples contained detectable traces of at least one pesticide. A total of 36 unique pesticides were detected on potatoes over the 2,216 samples, though no individual sample contained more than 6 unique pesticide traces, and the average was 1.29 detectable unique pesticide traces per sample. The average quantity of all pesticide traces found in the 2,216 samples was 1.602 ppm. While this is a very low value of pesticide residue, it is the highest amongst the 50 vegetables analyzed.

Health

Due to carbohydrate and fat content, potatoes are considered to make a person obese if used in excess i.e. more than RDA of carbohydrates and fats. Latest research just released by the University of California, Davis and the National Center for Food Safety and Technology, Illinois Institute of Technology demonstrates that people can include potatoes in their diet and still lose weight.

Uses

Potatoes are used to brew alcoholic beverages such as vodka, potcheen, or akvavit.

They are also used as food for domestic animals.

Potato starch is used in the food industry as, for example, thickeners and binders of soups and sauces, in the textile industry, as adhesives, and for the manufacturing of papers and boards. Maine companies are exploring the possibilities of using waste potatoes to obtain polylactic acid for use in plastic products; other research projects seek ways to use the starch as a base for biodegradable packaging.

Culinary uses

Potatoes are prepared in many ways: skin-on or peeled, whole or cut up, with seasonings or without. The only requirement involves cooking to swell the starch granules. Most potato dishes are served hot, but some are first cooked, then served cold, notably potato salad and potato chips/crisps.

Common dishes are: mashed potatoes, which are first boiled (usually peeled), and then mashed with milk or yogurt and butter; whole baked potatoes; boiled or steamed potatoes; French-fried potatoes or chips; cut into cubes and roasted; scalloped, diced, or sliced and fried (home fries); grated into small thin strips and fried (hash browns); grated and formed into dumplings, Rösti or potato pancakes. Unlike many foods, potatoes can also be easily cooked in a microwave oven and still retain nearly all of their nutritional value, provided they are covered in ventilated plastic wrap to prevent moisture from escaping; this method produces a meal very similar to a steamed potato, while retaining the appearance of a conventionally baked potato. Potato chunks also commonly appear as a stew ingredient.

Potatoes are boiled between 10 and 25 minutes, depending on size and type, to become soft.

Latin America

Peruvian cuisine naturally contains the potato as a primary ingredient in many dishes, as around 3,000 varieties of this tuber are grown there. Some of the more notable dishes include boiled potato as a base for several dishes or with ají-based sauces like in papa a la huancaina or ocopa, diced potato for its use in soups like in cau cau, or in Carapulca with dried potato (papa seca). Smashed condimented potato is used in causa Limeña and papa rellena. French-fried potatoes are a typical ingredient in Peruvian stir-fries, including the classic dish lomo saltado.

Chuño is a freeze-dried potato product traditionally made by Quechua and Aymara communities of Peru and Bolivia, and is known in various countries of South America, including Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, and Chile. In Chile's Chiloé Archipelago, potatoes are the main ingredient of many dishes, including milcaos, chapaleles, curanto and chochoca. In Ecuador, the potato, as well as being a staple with most dishes, is featured in the hearty locro de papas, a thick soup of potato, squash, and cheese.

European cuisine

In the UK, potatoes form part of the traditional staple fish and chips. Roast potatoes are commonly served with a Sunday roast, and mashed potatoes form a major component of several other traditional dishes such as shepherd's pie, bubble and squeak, and bangers and mash. New potatoes are often cooked with mint and served with a little melted butter.

The Tattie scone is a popular Scottish dish containing potatoes. Colcannon is a traditional Irish food made with mashed potato, shredded kale or cabbage, and onion; champ is a similar dish. Boxty pancakes are eaten throughout Ireland, although associated especially with the north, and in Irish diaspora communities; they are traditionally made with grated potatoes, soaked to loosen the starch and mixed with flour, buttermilk and baking powder. A variant eaten and sold in Lancashire, especially Liverpool, is made with cooked and mashed potatoes.

Bryndzové halušky is the Slovakian national dish, made of a batter of flour and finely grated potatoes that is boiled to form dumplings. These are then mixed with regionally varying ingredients.

In Northern and Eastern Europe, especially in Scandinavian countries, Poland, Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, newly harvested, early ripening varieties are considered a special delicacy. Boiled whole and served un-peeled with dill, these "new potatoes" are traditionally consumed with Baltic herring. Puddings made from grated potatoes (kugel, kugelis, and potato babka) are popular items of Ashkenazi, Lithuanian, and Belarussian cuisine.

In Western Europe, especially in Belgium, sliced potatoes are fried to create frieten, the original French fried potatoes. Stamppot, a traditional Dutch meal, is based on mashed potatoes mixed with vegetables.

In France, the most notable potato dish is the Hachis Parmentier, named after Antoine-Augustin Parmentier, a French pharmacist, nutritionist, and agronomist who, in the late 18th century, was instrumental in the acceptance of the potato as an edible crop in the country. The pâté aux pommes de terre is a regional potato dish from the central Allier and Limousin regions.

In the north of Italy, in particular, in the Friuli region of the northeast, potatoes serve to make a type of pasta called gnocchi. Similarly, cooked and mashed potatoes or potato flour can be used in the Knödel or dumpling eaten with or added to meat dishes all over central and Eastern Europe, but especially in Bavaria and Luxembourg. Potatoes form one of the main ingredients in many soups such as the vichyssoise and Albanian potato and cabbage soup. In western Norway, komle is popular.

A traditional Canary Islands dish is Canarian wrinkly potatoes or papas arrugadas. Tortilla de patatas (potato omelete) and patatas bravas (a dish of fried potatoes in a spicy tomato sauce) are near-universal constituent of Spanish tapas.

North America

In the United States, potatoes have become one of the most widely consumed crops and thus have a variety of preparation methods and condiments. French fries and often hash browns are commonly found in typical American fast-food burger joints and cafeterias. One popular favorite involves a baked potato with cheddar cheese (or sour cream and chives) on top, and in New England "smashed potatoes" (a chunkier variation on mashed potatoes, retaining the peel) have great popularity. Potato flakes are popular as an instant variety of mashed potatoes, which reconstitute into mashed potatoes by adding water, with butter or oil and salt to taste. A regional dish of Central New York, salt potatoes are bite-size new potatoes boiled in water saturated with salt then served with melted butter. At more formal dinners, a common practice includes taking small red potatoes, slicing them, and roasting them in an iron skillet. Among American Jews, the practice of eating latkes (fried potato pancakes) is common during the festival of Hanukkah.

A traditional Acadian dish from New Brunswick is known as poutine râpée. The Acadian poutine is a ball of grated and mashed potato, salted, sometimes filled with pork in the center, and boiled. The result is a moist ball about the size of a baseball. It is commonly eaten with salt and pepper or brown sugar. It is believed to have originated from the German Klöße, prepared by early German settlers who lived among the Acadians.

Poutine, by contrast, is a hearty serving of French fries, fresh cheese curds and hot gravy. Tracing its origins to Quebec in the 1950s, it has become a widespread and popular dish throughout Canada.

Indian Subcontinent

In India, the most popular potato dishes are aloo ki sabzi, batata vada, and samosa, which is spicy mashed potato mixed with a small amount of vegetable stuffed in conical dough, and deep fried. Potatoes are also a major ingredient as fast food items, such as aloo chaat, where they are deep fried and served with chutney. In Northern India, alu dum and alu paratha are a favorite part of the diet; the first is a spicy curry of boiled potato, the second is a type of stuffed chapati.

A dish called masala dosa from South India is very notable all over India. It is a thin pancake of rice and pulse paste rolled over spicy smashed potato and eaten with sambhar and chutney. Poori in sound India in particular in Tamil Nadu is almost always taken with smashed potato masal. Other favorite dishes are alu tikki and pakoda items.

Vada pav is a popular vegetarian fast food dish in Mumbai and other regions in the Maharashtra in India.

Aloo posto (a curry with potatoes and poppy seeds) is immensely popular in East India, especially Bengal.

Far East Asia

In the Far East, rice still dominates the potato, especially in China and Japan. However, it is used in northern China where rice is not easily grown, with a popular dish being 青椒土豆丝 (qīng jiāo tǔ dòu sī), made with green pepper, vinegar and a thin slices of potato. In the winter, roadside sellers in northern China will also sell roasted potatoes. It is also occasionally seen in Korean and Thai cuisines.

Art

The potato has been an essential crop in the Andes since the pre-Columbian Era. The Moche culture from Northern Peru made ceramics from earth, water, and fire. This pottery was a sacred substance, formed in significant shapes and used to represent important themes. Potatoes are represented anthropomorphically as well as naturally.

During the late 19th century, numerous images of potato harvesting appeared in European art, including the works of Willem Witsen and Anton Mauve. Van Gogh's 1885 painting "The Potato Eaters" portrays a family eating potatoes.

Invented in 1949 and marketed and sold commercially by Hasbro in 1952, Mr. Potato Head is an American toy that consists of a plastic potato and attachable plastic parts such as ears and eyes to make a face. It was the first toy ever advertised on television.

See also

List of potato museums

New World crops

Potato battery

Loy, a form of early spade used in Ireland for the cultivation of potatoes.

Notes

References

Economist. "Llamas and mash", The Economist 28 Feb 2008 online

Economist. "The potato: Spud we like", (leader) The Economist 28 Feb 2008 online

Boomgaard, Peter. "In the Shadow of Rice: Roots and Tubers in Indonesian History, 1500–1950." Agricultural History 2003 77(4): 582–610. Issn: 0002-1482 Fulltext: Ebsco

Hawkes, J.G. (1990). The Potato: Evolution, Biodiversity & Genetic Resources, Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C.

Lang, James (2001). Notes of a Potato Watcher, Texas A&M; University, College Station, Texas.

Langer, William L. "American Foods and Europe's Population Growth 1750–1850", Journal of Social History, Vol. 8, No. 2 (Winter, 1975), pp. 51–66 in JSTOR

McNeill, William H. "How the Potato Changed the World's History." Social Research 1999 66(1): 67–83. Issn: 0037-783x Fulltext: Ebsco, by a leading historian

McNeill, William H. "The Introduction of the Potato into Ireland", Journal of Modern History 21 (1948): 218–21. in JSTOR

Ó Gráda, Cormac. Black '47 and Beyond: The Great Irish Famine in History, Economy, and Memory. (1999). 272 pp.

# Ó Gráda, Cormac, Richard Paping, and Eric Vanhaute, eds. When the Potato Failed: Causes and Effects of the Last European Subsistence Crisis, 1845–1850. (2007). 342 pp. ISBN 978-2-503-51985-2. 15 essays by scholars looking at Ireland and all of Europe

Reader, John. Propitious Esculent: The Potato in World History (2008), 315pp a standard scholarly history

Salaman, Redcliffe N. (1989). The History and Social Influence of the Potato, Cambridge University Press (originally published in 1949; reprinted 1985 with new introduction and corrections by J.G. Hawkes).

Stevenson, W.R., Loria, R., Franc, G.D., and Weingartner, D.P. (2001) Compendium of Potato Diseases, 2nd ed, Amer. Phytopathological Society, St. Paul, Minnesota.

Zuckerman, Larry. The Potato: How the Humble Spud Rescued the Western World. (1998). 304 pp. Douglas & McIntyre. ISBN 0-86547-578-4.

Further reading

The World Potato Atlas at Cgiar.org, released by the International Potato Center in 2006 and regularly updated. Includes current chapters of 15 countries:

*South America: (English and Spanish): Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru

*Africa: Cameroon, Ethiopia, Kenya

*Eurasia: Armenia, Bangladesh, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Tajikistan

*38 others as brief "archive" chapters

*Further information links at Cgiar.org.

World Geography of the Potato at UGA.edu, released in 1993.

Reference for potato history: The Vegetable Ingredients Cookbook by Christine Ingram, Lorenz Books, 1996 ISBN 1-85967-264-7

The History and Social Influence of the Potato by Redcliffe N. Salaman ISBN 0-521-31623-5

Hamilton, Andy & Dave, (2004), Potatoes: Solanum tuberosums retrieved on 4 May 2005

Gauldie, Enid (1981). The Scottish Miller 1700–1900. Pub. John Donald. ISBN 0-85976-067-7.

External links

GLKS Potato Database

Centro Internacional de la Papa: CIP (International Potato Center)

World Potato Congress

British Potato Council

Online Potato Pedigree Database for cultivated varieties

Potato Information & Exchange

GMO Safety: Genetic engineering on potatoes Biological safety research projects and results

International Year of the Potato 2008

Solanum tuberosum (potato, papas): life cycle, tuber anatomy at GeoChemBio

Potato Genome Sequencing Consortium

Potato storage and value Preservation: Pawanexh Kohli, CrossTree techno-visors.

Category:Crops originating from the Americas Category:Crops originating from Bolivia Category:Crops originating from Chile Category:Crops originating from Peru Category:Indian ingredients Category:Puerto Rican ingredients Category:Quechua loanwords Category:Root vegetables Category:Staple foods Category:Tubers Category:Sequenced genomes

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Name	Dan Quayle
Order	44th Vice President of the United States
Term start	January 20, 1989
Term end	January 20, 1993
Predecessor	George H. W. Bush
Successor	Al Gore
Jr/sr2	United States Senator
State2	Indiana
Term start2	January 3, 1981
Term end2	January 3, 1989
Predecessor2	Birch Bayh
Successor2	Dan Coats
Order3	Member of the United States House of Representatives from Indiana's 4th District
Term start3	January 3, 1977
Term end3	January 3, 1981
Predecessor3	J. Edward Roush
Successor3	Dan Coats
Birth date	February 04, 1947
Birth place	Indianapolis, Indiana
Birthname	James Danforth Quayle
Nationality	American
Religion	Presbyterian
Spouse	Marilyn Quayle
Children	Tucker QuayleBen QuayleCorinne Quayle
Party	Republican
President	George H. W. Bush
Signature	Dan Quayle Signature 2.svg
Signature alt	Cursive signature in ink
Alma mater	DePauw University and Indiana University School of Law – Indianapolis
Residence	Paradise Valley, Arizona
Occupation	JuristPolitician
Branch	National Guard
Serviceyears	1969–1975
Rank	Sergeant
Unit	Indiana }}

James Danforth "Dan" Quayle (; born February 4, 1947) served as the 44th Vice President of the United States, serving with President George H. W. Bush (1989–1993). He served as a U.S. Representative and U.S. Senator from the state of Indiana.

Quayle was born in Indianapolis but spent most of his childhood living in Arizona. He obtained his J.D. from Indiana University School of Law – Indianapolis in 1974 and married Marilyn Tucker in 1972. He practiced law in Huntington, Indiana with his wife before being elected to the United States Congress in 1976, aged 29. In 1980, Quayle entered the Senate.

In 1988, incumbent U.S. Vice-President and Republican presidential candidate George H. W. Bush called upon Quayle to be his running mate in the forthcoming election. Although this choice was met with some dismay, the Bush/Quayle ticket won the 1988 Election over Democrat Michael Dukakis. Making official visits to 47 countries and being appointed chairman of the National Space Council, Quayle's vice-presidency was considered to be very eventful. He secured re-nomination for vice-president in 1992 but the Bush/Quayle ticket was defeated by Democrat Bill Clinton and his vice-presidential nominee, Al Gore.

In 1996, he published his memoirs entitled Standing Firm but declined to run for public office in this time period due to being afflicted by phlebitis. He sought the Republican presidential nomination in 2000, but withdrew and supported George W. Bush. Quayle and his wife currently reside in Paradise Valley, Arizona.

One of his sons, Ben Quayle, was elected to the House of Representatives in 2010.

Early life

Quayle was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, to Martha Corinne Pulliam and James Cline Quayle. He has often been incorrectly referred to as James Danforth Quayle III. In his memoirs, he points out that his birth name was simply James Danforth Quayle. The name Quayle originates from the Isle of Man.

His maternal grandfather, Eugene C. Pulliam, was a wealthy and influential publishing magnate who founded Central Newspapers, Inc., owner of over a dozen major newspapers such as The Arizona Republic and The Indianapolis Star. James C. Quayle moved his family to Arizona in 1955 to run a branch of the family's publishing empire. While the Quayle family was very wealthy, Dan Quayle was less so; his total net worth by the time of his election in 1988 was less than $1 million.

After spending much of his youth in Arizona, he graduated from Huntington High School in Huntington, Indiana, in 1965. He then matriculated at DePauw University, where he received his B.A. degree in political science in 1969, and where he was a member of the fraternity Delta Kappa Epsilon (Psi Phi chapter). After receiving his degree, Quayle joined the Indiana Army National Guard and served from 1969–1975, attaining the rank of sergeant. While serving in the Guard, he earned a Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree in 1974 at Indiana University School of Law – Indianapolis. At law school, he met his future wife, Marilyn, who was taking night classes at the time.

Early political career

Quayle became an investigator for the Consumer Protection Division of the Office of the Indiana Attorney General in July 1971. Later that year, he became an administrative assistant to Governor Edgar Whitcomb. From 1973 to 1974, he was the Director of the Inheritance Tax Division of the Indiana Department of Revenue. Upon receiving his law degree, Quayle worked as associate publisher of his family's newspaper, the Huntington Herald-Press, and practiced law with his wife in Huntington.

In 1976, Quayle was elected by a wide margin to the House of Representatives from Indiana's 4th congressional district, defeating eight-term incumbent Democrat J. Edward Roush. He won reelection in 1978 by the greatest percentage margin achieved to date in that northeast Indiana district. In 1980, at age 33, Quayle became the youngest person ever elected to the Senate from the state of Indiana, defeating three-term incumbent Democrat Birch Bayh. Making Indiana political history again, Quayle was reelected to the Senate in 1986 with the largest margin ever achieved to that date by a candidate in a statewide Indiana race. His 1986 victory was notable because several other Republican Senators elected in 1980 were not returned to office.

In 1986, Quayle was criticized for championing the cause of Daniel Anthony Manion, a candidate for a federal appellate judgeship, who was in law school one year above Quayle. The American Bar Association had evaluated him as "qualified", its lowest passing grade. According to the ABA, "the rating of 'qualified' means that the nominee satisfies the committee's very high standards... (and) is qualified to perform satisfactorily all the duties and responsibilities required of a federal judge." Manion was nominated for U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit by President Ronald Reagan on February 21, 1986, and confirmed by the Senate on June 26, 1986. , Manion continues to serve on the Seventh Circuit.

Vice Presidential candidate

On August 17 at the Republican convention in New Orleans, Louisiana, George H. W. Bush called on Quayle to be his running mate in the 1988 United States presidential election. The choice immediately became controversial. Press coverage of the convention was dominated with questions about "the three Quayle problems", in the phrase of Brent Baker, executive director of the Media Research Center, a conservative group that monitors television coverage. The questions involved his military service, a golf trip to Florida with Paula Parkinson, and whether he had enough experience to be President. Quayle seemed at times rattled and at other times uncertain or evasive as he tried to handle the questions. Delegates to the convention generally blamed television and newspapers for the focus on Quayle's problems, but Bush's staff said they thought Quayle had mishandled the questions about his military record, leaving questions dangling. Although Republicans were trailing by up to 15 points in public opinion polls taken before the convention, they received a significant boost that put them in the lead, which they did not relinquish for the rest of the campaign.

Quayle participated in the vice-presidential debate of October 1988, alongside Democratic candidate Lloyd Bentsen. When the subject of the debate turned to Quayle's relatively limited experience in public life, he compared the length of his congressional service with that of former President John F. Kennedy. Bentsen's response — "Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy" — subsequently become a part of the political lexicon.

Vice Presidency

The Bush/Quayle ticket went on to win the November election with a 53–46 percent margin by sweeping 40 states and capturing 426 electoral votes.

Bush named Quayle head of the Council on Competitiveness and the first chairman of the National Space Council. As head of the NSC he called for greater efforts to protect Earth against the danger of potential asteroid impacts.

During his vice-presidency, Dan Quayle made official trips to 47 countries.

Throughout his time as vice president, Quayle was widely ridiculed in the media and by many in the general public, in both the U.S. and overseas, as an intellectual lightweight and generally incompetent, if not outright stupid. Contributing greatly to the perception of Quayle's incompetence was his tendency to make public statements that were either self-contradictory and confused ("The holocaust was an obscene period in our nation's history.… No, not our nation's, but in World War II. I mean, we all lived in this century. I didn't live in this century, but in this century's history"), impossible and confused ("I have made good judgments in the past. I have made good judgments in the future") or simply confused, as when he addressed the United Negro College Fund, whose slogan is "A mind is a terrible thing to waste," and said, "You take the UNCF model that what a waste it is to lose one's mind or not to have a mind is being very wasteful. How true that is."

Shortly after Bush announced the Space Exploration Initiative, which included a manned landing on Mars, Quayle was asked his thoughts on sending humans to Mars. In his response he made a number of loose statements that could be strictly considered as errors: "Mars is essentially in the same orbit [as Earth]....Mars is somewhat the same distance from the Sun, which is very important. We have seen pictures where there are canals, we believe, and water. If there is water, that means there is oxygen. If oxygen, that means we can breathe."

His most famous blunder occurred when he altered student William Figueroa's correct spelling of "potato" to "potatoe" at an elementary school spelling bee in Trenton, New Jersey, on June 15, 1992. Quayle was widely lambasted for his apparent inability to spell the word "potato". According to his memoirs, he was relying on cards provided by the school, which included the misspelling. Quayle said he was uncomfortable with the version he gave, but did so because he decided to trust the school's incorrect written materials.

On May 19, 1992, Quayle gave a speech to the Commonwealth Club of California on the subject of the Los Angeles riots. In this speech, Quayle blamed the violence on a decay of moral values and family structure in American society. In an aside, he cited the single mother title character in the television program Murphy Brown as an example of how popular culture contributes to this "poverty of values", saying: "[i]t doesn't help matters when primetime TV has Murphy Brown — a character who supposedly epitomizes today's intelligent, highly paid, professional woman — mocking the importance of fathers, by bearing a child alone, and calling it just another 'lifestyle choice.'"

The "Murphy Brown speech" became one of the most memorable incidents of the 1992 campaign. Long after the outcry had ended, the comment continued to have an effect on U.S. politics. Stephanie Coontz, a professor of family history and the author of several books and essays about the history of marriage, says that this brief remark by Quayle about Murphy Brown "kicked off more than a decade of outcries against the 'collapse of the family.'" In 2002, Candice Bergen, the actress who played Brown, said "I never have really said much about the whole episode, which was endless, but his speech was a perfectly intelligent speech about fathers not being dispensable and nobody agreed with that more than I did."

1992 election

During the 1992 election, Bush and Quayle were challenged in their bid for reelection by the Democratic ticket of Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton and Tennessee Senator Al Gore, as well as the independent ticket of Texas businessman Ross Perot and retired Admiral James Stockdale.

As Bush lagged in the polls in the weeks preceding the August 1992 Republican National Convention, some Republican strategists (led by Secretary of State James Baker) viewed Quayle as a liability to the ticket and pushed for his replacement. Quayle survived the challenge and secured renomination.

Quayle faced off against Gore and Stockdale in the vice-presidential debate on October 13, 1992. Quayle attempted to avoid the one-sided outcome of his debate with Lloyd Bentsen four years earlier by staying on the offensive. Quayle criticized Gore's book Earth in the Balance with specific page references, though his claims were subsequently criticized by the liberal group FAIR for inaccuracy. Quayle's closing argument sharply asked voters, "Do you really believe Bill Clinton will tell the truth?" and "Do you trust Bill Clinton to be your president?", whereas Gore and Stockdale talked more about the policies and philosophies they espoused. Republican loyalists were largely relieved and pleased with Quayle's performance, and the Vice President's camp attempted to portray it as an upset triumph against a veteran debater. However, post-debate polls were mixed on whether Gore or Quayle had won. It ultimately proved to be a minor factor in the election, which Bush and Quayle subsequently lost.

Post-Vice Presidency

Quayle considered but decided against running for Governor of Indiana in 1996.

He declined to run for the 1996 Republican presidential nomination, citing health problems related to phlebitis.

In April 1999, Quayle announced his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination for 2000, attacking front-runner George W. Bush by saying "we do not want another candidate who needs on-the-job training". In the first contest among the Republican candidates, the Ames Straw Poll of August 1999, he finished eighth. Commentators said that while he had the most political experience among prospective candidates (over Bush and Elizabeth Dole) and potential grassroots support among conservatives, his campaign was hampered by the legacy of his vice-presidency. He withdrew from the race the following month and supported Bush.

Quayle authored a 1994 memoir, Standing Firm, which became a bestseller. His second book, The American Family: Discovering the Values that Make Us Strong, was published in 1996 and a third book, Worth Fighting For, in 1999. Quayle writes a nationally syndicated newspaper column, serves on a number of corporate boards, chairs several business ventures, and was chairman of Campaign America, a national political action committee.

Dan Quayle joined Cerberus Capital Management, a multi-billion dollar private equity firm, in 1999 and is Chairman of the company's Global Investments division. As chairman of the international advisory board of Cerberus Capital Management, he recruited former Canadian prime minister Brian Mulroney, who would have been installed as chairman if Cerberus had successfully acquired Air Canada. Quayle is an Honorary Trustee Emeritus of the Hudson Institute and is president of Quayle and Associates. He has also been a member of the Board of Directors of Heckmann Corporation, a water sector company, since the company's inception and serves as Chairman of the company's Compensation and Nominating & Governance Committees. Quayle is also a director of Aozora Bank, Tokyo, Japan.

Quayle has also been on the board of directors of other companies including K2 Sports, Amtran Inc., Central Newspapers Inc., and BTC Inc.

The Quayles live in Paradise Valley, Arizona. Quayle, then working as an investment banker in Phoenix, was mentioned as a candidate for Governor of Arizona prior to the 2002 election, but he declined to run.

In a February 2010 interview with Megyn Kelly of Fox News, Quayle announced that his son, Ben Quayle, would be a candidate for the U.S. Congress, running for a seat representing Arizona's 3rd congressional district. He went on to win that election.

Dan Quayle signed the statement of principles of the Project for the New American Century.

The Dan Quayle Center and Museum is located in Huntington, Indiana, and features information on Quayle and all U.S. vice presidents.

Electoral history

1976 election for U.S. House of Representatives — 4th District

*Dan Quayle (R), 54%

*Ed Roush (D) (inc.), 45%

1978 election for U.S. House of Representatives — 4th District

*Dan Quayle (R) (inc.), 100%

1980 election for U.S. Senate

*Dan Quayle (R), 54%

*Birch Bayh (D) (inc.), 46%

1986 election for U.S. Senate

*Dan Quayle (R) (inc.), 61%

*Jill Long Thompson (D), 39%

1988 Presidential election

*Bush/Quayle (R), 53% (426 Electoral Votes)

*Dukakis/Bentsen (D), 46% (111 Electoral Votes)

1992 Presidential election

*Clinton/Gore (D), 43% (370 Electoral Votes)

*Bush/Quayle (R), 37% (168 Electoral Votes)

*Perot/Stockdale (I), 19% (0 Electoral Votes)

Published material

Standing Firm: A Vice-Presidential Memoir, Harper Collins, May 1994. hardcover, ISBN 0-06-017758-6; mass market paperback, May, 1995; ISBN 0-06-109390-4; Limited edition, 1994, ISBN 0-06-017601-6

The American Family: Discovering the Values That Make Us Strong (with Diane Medved), Harpercollins, April 1996, ISBN 0-06-017378-5 (hardcover), ISBN 0-06-092810-7 (paperback)

Worth Fighting For, W Publishing Group, July 1999, ISBN 0-8499-1606-2

Footnotes

Further reading

What a Waste It Is to Lose One's Mind: The Unauthorized Autobiography of Dan Quayle, Quayle Quarterly (published by Rose Communications), April 1992, ISBN 0-9629162-2-6.

Joe Queenan, Imperial Caddy: The Rise of Dan Quayle in America and the Decline and Fall of Practically Everything Else, Hyperion Books; October 1992 (1st edition). ISBN 1-56282-939-4.

Richard F. Fenno, Jr., The Making of a Senator: Dan Quayle, Congressional Quarterly Press, January 1989. ISBN 0-87187-506-3.

External links

Campaign contributions made by Dan Quayle

Speech to the Commonwealth Club of California ("Murphy Brown speech")

List of Quayle Quotations

Vice Presidential Museum at the Dan Quayle Center

VP Quayle Receives DePauw's McNaughton Medal for Public Service; October 26, 1990

nndb

Cerberus Capital Management LP

Genealogy of the family of J. Danforth Quayle

Category:American people of Manx descent Category:American Presbyterians Category:Cerberus Capital Management Category:DePauw University alumni Category:Ig Nobel Prize winners Category:Indiana Republicans Category:Indiana University School of Law - Indianapolis alumni Category:Members of the United States House of Representatives from Indiana Category:People from Indianapolis, Indiana Category:Republican Party (United States) vice presidential nominees Category:United States Army soldiers Category:United States presidential candidates, 2000 Category:United States Senators from Indiana Category:United States vice-presidential candidates, 1988 Category:United States vice-presidential candidates, 1992 Category:Vice Presidents of the United States Category:Writers from Arizona Category:Writers from Indiana Category:1947 births Category:Living people Category:Republican Party Vice Presidents of the United States Category:Republican Party United States Senators Category:Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis alumni

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Name	Dee Dee Sharp
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Dione LaRue
Born	September 09, 1945Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Instrument	Vocals
Genre	R&B;Soul
Occupation	Singer
Years active	1961–present
Label	Cameo, Atco, Atlantic, Gamble, Philadelphia International
Website	}}

Dee Dee Sharp (born Dione LaRue, September 9, 1945, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States) is an American R&B; singer, who began her career recording as a backing vocalist in 1961.

Career

In 1962 she began a string of successful Billboard Hot 100 Top 10 hits: "Slow Twistin'" (with Chubby Checker) (#3), "Mashed Potato Time" (#2), "Gravy (For My Mashed Potatoes)" (#9), "Ride" (#5) and "Do the Bird" (#10). Both "Mashed Potato Time" and "Ride" each sold over one million copies, and were awarded gold discs. "Do the Bird" provided her only entry in the UK Singles Chart, where it peaked at #46 in April 1963. In 1967, she married record producer Kenny Gamble and has since recorded under the name Dee Dee Sharp-Gamble.

She had a brief career resurgence during the disco era: as a member of the Philadelphia International All Stars (which also included Lou Rawls, Billy Paul, Teddy Pendergrass, The O'Jays and Archie Bell) she had a minor hit with "Let's Clean Up the Ghetto."

In 1981 she spent four weeks at number one on the Hot Dance Club Play chart with "Breaking and Entering" / "Easy Money," from her album Dee Dee.

More recent appearances included a performance at Pontins in the UK for the Northern Soul Show, and at the 2008 Detroit Jazz Festival. In May 2009, she appeared in Belgium at the Salle De L'Hotel de Ville.

Discography

Studio albums

1962: ''Biggest Hits

1962: It's Mashed Potato Time

1962: Songs Of Faith

1962: Down To Earth with Chubby Checker

1963: Do The Bird

1963: Down Memory Lane

1975: Happy Bout The Whole Thing

1977: What Color Is Love

1980: Dee Dee

Compilations

1963: 18 Golden Hits

1963: All The Hits

1963: Biggest Hits

2005: Best Of Dee Dee Sharp 1962-1966

See also

List of artists who reached number one on the Billboard R&B; chart

List of artists who reached number one on the US Dance chart

List of disco artists

List of people from Philadelphia

List of acts who appeared on American Bandstand

References

External links

The story of "Mashed Potato Time"

Dee Dee Sharp photo gallery

The Official Web Site

Category:1945 births Category:Living people Category:American female singers Category:American rhythm and blues musicians Category:Musicians from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Category:Philadelphia International Records artists Category:Northern soul musicians

de:Dee Dee Sharp fr:Dee Dee Sharp gl:Dee Dee Sharp nl:Dee Dee Sharp

name	Dee Sharp
background	solo_singer
birth name	Derrick Trought
born	1956
instrument	Vocals
genre	Reggae, lovers rock, soul
years active	1980–present
label	Fashion, RCA
associated acts	Buzzz
notable instruments	}}

Derrick Trought (born 1956), better known as Dee Sharp, is a British lovers rock singer who began his recording career in 1980, also joining Buzzz as lead singer for a time.

Biography

Sharp's debut single, a version of Leo Hall's "Let's Dub It Up", released in 1980, was the first release by Fashion Records, and topped the reggae charts in the UK. He followed this with "Swing and Dine"/"Follow Your Heart", which was also successful, and Sharp became established as one of the leading artists of the British lovers rock scene.

In 1981 he joined the Brit funk group Buzzz as lead singer, the band signing to RCA Records and appearing on the BBC television show Ebony. The group were moderately successful and Sharp was the cover star for the 31 July 1982 issue of Melody Maker. Sharp left the band in 1982 and resumed his solo career, having further local reggae hits in 1983 with "Rising to the Top" and "Give It All You've Got".

In 1984 he contributed a rap to Nick Heyward's song "Warning Sign", performing with Heyward on Top of the Pops.

He continued to record and perform both reggae and soul into the 1990s.

Discography

Singles

"Let's Dub It Up" (1980), Fashion

"Swing and Dine"/"Follow Your Heart" (1980), Fashion

"Magician" (1983), RCA

"Take Your Time"

"Straighten Up and Fly Right" (1983), RCA

"Rising to the Top" (1983), Fashion

"Give It All You've Got" (1983)

"Moon Dance" (1987), Syncopate

References

Category:1956 births Category:Living people Category:British reggae musicians Category:Lovers rock

name	Dawn Wells
birth name	Dawn Elberta Wells
birth date	October 18, 1938
birth place	Reno, Nevada, U.S.
occupation	Actress
years active	1961–present
website	http://www.dawn-wells.com/ }}

Dawn Elberta Wells (born October 18, 1938) is an American actress known for playing Mary Ann Summers on the sitcom Gilligan's Island during its run from 1964 until 1967.

Early life

Wells was born in Reno, Nevada. Growing up, Wells attended Reno High School. She later attended Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri, where she majored in chemistry. She transferred to the University of Washington in Seattle, where she graduated in 1960 with a degree in theater arts. She was a member of the Alpha Chi Omega sorority.

In 1959, Wells was crowned Miss Nevada and represented her state in the 1960 Miss America pageant in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Career

After moving to Hollywood, she began appearing in guest roles in such television series as 77 Sunset Strip, The Cheyenne Show on ABC, Maverick on ABC, and Bonanza on NBC, before the role of Mary Ann on Gilligan's Island. She reprised her role in the various Gilligan's Island reunion specials.

Wells starred with Michael Dante in the independent film Winterhawk (1975), playing a Western settler kidnapped by a Native-American chief. She continued guest starring in various television series.

Following Gilligan's Island, Wells embarked on a very successful theater career that is still going strong to this day. She has appeared in nearly 100 theatrical productions as of July 2009. She spent the majority of the 1970s and 1980s touring in musical theatre productions. She also had a one-woman show she performed at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas in 1985.

In the 1990s, she became a spokesperson for Western Union, Cuisinart, Long John Silver's, Coca-Cola and 1800collect.

In 1993, Wells published Mary Ann's Gilligan's Island Cookbook with co-writers Ken Beck & Jim Clark, including a foreword by Bob Denver.

In 2005, Wells consigned for sale her original gingham blouse and shorts ensemble from her signature role. A Beverly Hills auction house, Profiles in History, sold it for $20,700.

In 2008, Wells came to Los Angeles to join Sherwood Schwartz, the creator of Gilligan's Island for the celebration of Schwartz' entry into the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Personal life

She was married to Larry Rosen, a talent agent, from 1962 to 1967. The couple had no children.

Wells spent summers in her early years in the Teton Valley of eastern Idaho, and relocated there in the 1990s. In Idaho, she runs a successful business, Wishing Wells Collections, making clothing for people with limited mobility. She is the founder of the Idaho Film and Television Institute, a not-for-profit (501c3) educational organization with "A vision of education, technical training and economic development in Southeastern Idaho." She organized SpudFest, a regional annual family movie festival, and has been a spokesperson for Idaho Potatoes.

Wells continues to lend her support to the Denver Foundation, a charity chaired by Dreama Denver, widow of Wells' Gilligan’s Island co-star Bob Denver. In November 2009, she appeared at the Denver Foundation's Christmas Wish Celebrity Auction, helping to raise funds for the disabled and disadvantaged in West Virginia.

While driving home from her birthday party celebration on October 18, 2007, Wells was observed swerving across the roadway and was arrested by Idaho police. Wells plead guilty to one count of reckless driving, was fined and served six months' unsupervised probation. In a statement, Wells admitted swerving, saying she was reaching for her car heater controls. Wells lost a speaking engagement because of the incident.

Partial filmography

The Everglades (1961) (part of Piney)

The Cheyenne Show (1961) TV episode 102: "Lone Patrol" (Part of Sarah Claypool)

Maverick (1961) TV episode 105: "The Deadly Image" (Part of Caprice Rambeau)

Bonanza (1962) TV episode: "The Way Station" (part of Marty Johnson)

Palm Springs Weekend (1963)

The New Interns (1964)

Gilligan's Island (1964–1967)

Bonanza (1968) TV episode: "The Burning Sky" (part of Moon Holt)

Winterhawk (1975)

The Town That Dreaded Sundown (1976)

Return to Boggy Creek (1977)

Rescue from Gilligan's Island (1978)

The Castaways on Gilligan's Island (1979)

High School U.S.A. (1983)

ALF (1987) TV episode: "Somewhere Over the Rerun. aka. The Ballad of Gilligan's Island" (part of Mary Ann)

The Princess and the Dwarf (1989)

Soulmates (1992)

Space Ghost Coast to Coast (1994) one episode: herself

Lover's Knot (1996)

Super Sucker (2002)

Forever for Now (2004)

Cyber Meltdown (2005)

References

External links

Category:1938 births Category:American television actors Category:Miss America delegates Category:People from Teton County, Idaho Category:People from Reno, Nevada Category:Reno High School alumni Category:Stephens College people Category:University of Washington alumni Category:Living people Category:Actors from Nevada Category:Actors from Idaho

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