The professor who doesn't understand the influence of the low-carb thing is probably just looking at how little money has been spent promoting Atkins, etc. He doesn't recognize the power of word of mouth-- that so many of us got to LC because we have friends/family who did it, and it worked. Period.

I think potato farming has an incredibly interestin and complex history. It's discussed in "the Botany of Desire" by Michael Pollan.

From Amazon, http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...295802?v=glance: "His excellent discussion of the potato combines a history of the plant with a prime example of how biotechnology is changing our relationship to nature. As part of his research, Pollan visited the Monsanto company headquarters and planted some of their NewLeaf brand potatoes in his garden--seeds that had been genetically engineered to produce their own insecticide. Though they worked as advertised, he made some startling discoveries, primarily that the NewLeaf plants themselves are registered as a pesticide by the EPA and that federal law prohibits anyone from reaping more than one crop per seed packet. And in a interesting aside, he explains how a global desire for consistently perfect French fries contributes to both damaging monoculture and the genetic engineering necessary to support it."

He also provides the history of the potato in Ireland, and how economic forces caused the devastation of the potato famine, etc. Good read.

I do feel sympathy for farmers whose crops are suffering on the market, because I come from farmers. At the same time, there are ethical problems with the overconsumption (and overproduction) of potatoes. Some people benefit from eating potatoes, but not me, and not most of the thousands of obese Americans.