Traditional cultural reasons
Potatoes and sweet potatoes have similar life experiences. In the era of geographical discovery, these two crops originated in South America were brought back to Europe by the Spanish in the16th century, and then spread to the whole world step by step.
Discovery era
1620, Mayflower arrived in the New World of North America with the first batch of poor Puritans, mainly from Britain. Later, European immigrants came to the North American colonies continuously, and France, Spain, the Netherlands and Ireland were the main forces of immigrants. The American habit of eating French fries comes from Europe.
At present, there are dozens of shapes and eating methods of French fries, but whether it is English fish and chips, wurst with French fries, or French Belgian deep fries, they are the favorite of the poor at first.
In 1950s, when people in China were poor, they used to eat a lot of sweet potato porridge. Hundreds of years ago, the status of potatoes in Europe was similar to that of sweet potato porridge in China 60 years ago. People all over the world reject potatoes, thinking that this "barbarian food" is not mentioned in the Bible, and eating it will lead to leprosy. Moreover, they also think that potatoes grow underground, unlike noble and tall ears of wheat, and are not worthy of making bread.
However, the cleanliness of food has always been a noble matter, and those who are struggling on the verge of death can't care so much. /kloc-At the end of 0/6, potatoes were introduced to Britain and spread rapidly in Britain, especially in Ireland. By 1650, potatoes have become the main food crops in Ireland. By the end of 18 at the latest, French fries had blossomed all over the European continent.
The reason of planting conditions
Then there were sweet potatoes in Europe. Why do poor people only like potatoes? This involves a more essential problem: the planting conditions of potatoes and sweet potatoes are different.
In terms of adaptability, potatoes are much better than sweet potatoes. Potatoes can be planted in spring, summer, autumn and winter, germinate above three degrees Celsius, and can be harvested in two or three months. They are cold-tolerant and drought-tolerant, can adapt to acidic and alkaline soils, and generally do not harvest. It is an artifact to help the poor.
Sweet potatoes are much more delicate, and will not germinate below 10 degrees Celsius. Although it grows well in South America, it can only be planted in April and harvested in 10 in other places except the south of the Tropic of Cancer. Do the poor have to wait half a year to satisfy their hunger? It is not difficult to understand that people decided to give up sweet potatoes.
Reasons for consumption patterns
It is generally believed that French fries in American fast food restaurants are eating habits that American soldiers learned from France and Belgium during World War I.
Different from the eating habits of frying in Europe, Americans who love quick-frozen semi-finished products invented quick-frozen French fries in the 1960s. Nowadays, the shelves of American supermarkets are full of 10 pound bags of family discount frozen French fries, and the French fries of American fast food restaurants all over the world are actually pre-fried and delivered by catering giants such as Simplo.
The improved consumption pattern of French fries has become more and more modern, which is very suitable for contemporary life.
summary
Under the influence of various historical factors, potatoes and sweet potatoes, a pair of South American brothers, are now worlds apart. According to FAO statistics, in 20 12, the global potato planting area was twice that of sweet potato, and the total output was more than three times that of sweet potato.
Among the top ten countries in potato harvest area, Russia, Ukraine, the United States and Poland are all on the list. The main producing areas of sweet potato are China, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda, Indonesia, Vietnam, Madagascar, Angola, Mozambique and Papua New Guinea-if you look closely, there are no western countries.
It seems that it is as difficult to change the centuries-old eating habit of "eating potatoes instead of sweet potatoes" in the western world as forcing northerners to eat jiaozi dipped in sand tea sauce.