A snack stand at the just-concluded World Potato Congress.(Photo/CRI)
"Yum! They're all made from potatoes!" squealed nine-year-old Li Minghan while running around snack stands at the just-concluded World Potato Congress in Beijing.
The girl vowed to try drinks, noodles and even ice cream made from potatoes at the event, staged as China tries to stave off a potential food crisis by persuading its population of the merits of the humble spud as an alternative to rice and wheat.
"Potatoes originated from south America. They can survive in harsh conditions," said Li, displaying the knowledge that helped her win a school science competition themed around potatoes.
French fries are Li's favorite food. Some of her earliest memories are of eating fries in McDonald's and KFC as the fast food craze swept China.
Authorities must wish that everyone had such fond recollections of eating potatoes. For the older generation, they are associated with desperate hunger.
Li's grandma, Jia Zhongning, ate potatoes for every single meal in 1972 when she worked in a poverty-stricken part of Sichuan Province.
"We roasted them over the fire or boiled them," the retired biology teacher said. "They had to feed many people."
Jia and many Chinese who lived through the 60s and 70s could be forgiven for never wanting to see another potato. As if that wasn't enough of a negative perception for the authorities' promotional campaign to dismantle, many in China believe that potatoes are unhealthy.
Nevertheless, the country is increasing potato production to make it a staple food, better ensuring food security as it faces tight supplies of farmland, water and labor. It has become the world's largest potato producer, with a planting area of 5.6 million hectares.
The Ministry of Agriculture forecasts China will consume 50 billion kg more food in 2020 than it did in 2010. It stresses that potatoes are more resistent to cold and drought and that it is easier to improve their yield efficiency compared with wheat and rice.
An average-size potato contains as much protein as an egg, and 10 times more vitamin C than an apple, according to Xie Conghua, a researcher at Huazhong Agricultural University.
Many at the congress were well aware that this starchy crop's nutrition value has long been recognized by the West.
"Eating potatoes in moderation can help you lose weight. Your hunger will be sated and you will feel satisfied," Yan Changwu, a chef at the event told a group of female visitors who worried that potatoes would contribute to obesity levels.
As a potato salad fan, the 41-year-old chef advised that potatoes can be treated as a vegetable or a fruit.
He said he was developing potato-based versions of traditional Chinese food including noodles and steamed buns to try to get diners to accept them more.
Will he and the government campaign be successful? "Only time will tell," Yan said.
