The video below shows the surprising importance of the potato to world history. The book Amazing Potato: A Story in Which the Incas, Conquistadors, Marie Antoinette, Thomas Jefferson, Wars, Famines, Immigrants, and French Fries shows the key role the potato played in European, American, and world history.

 

The Inca first cultivated the potato and still raise a wide variety to ensure a crop in every climate and terrain. When the Irish adopted the potato, it led to an increase of population from 1 to 8 million people in about 250 years! However, unlike the Inca, the Irish made the mistake of raising a monocrop. When that failed, a million Irish died and millions had to emigrate.

Today, we are making the same mistake the Irish made by allowing Monsanto to gain control of our seeds and food supply with their monocrops. When those fail, it will put the lives of BILLIONS of people at risk -- and there may be nowhere to go. Nature uses biodiveristy to ensure survival. Nature abhors monocrops and eventually destroys them. 

 

That's one of the reasons the Urban Gardens Revolution is SO important -- people are raising organic foods locally, helping to ensure biodiversity. Dr. Vandana Shiva says, "Urban gardens are the biggest revolution today". She says we must all be seeds savers -- even if just one seed. She created the Navdanya Farm in India where 20,000 small farmers save organic seeds to protect against Monsanto's monopoly of the world's seeds. When Nepal was devastated by an earthquake recently, Navdanya delivered 10 TONS of organic seeds in time for farmers in Nepal to plant before the critical next month.

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