On eating potatoes.

摘要

Chloe Hunt and David McNamee (Aug 28, p 669) make a fair point about the misuse of Medline, but it is pity that they seem to trivialise research on the humble potato.Like wheat, the potato is an important staple, yet it is more easily grown than cereals, especially in damp temperate climates. The failure of potato crops, owing to potato blight, in the middle of the 19th century led to widespread famine and mass migrations. The world population is projected to rise to 9 billion and modern strains of potato are not completely immune from blight nor are wheat strains immune from rust. The issue of the security of the human food supply might turn out to be just as important as research into major human diseases such as HIV.