Potatoes READING Can you imagine life without French fries? Potatoes are very popular today They are the fourth most important crop in the world, after wheat, rice, and corn. But in the past, potatoes were not always popular. People in Europe started to eat them only 200 years ago! In the 1500s, the Spanish went to South America to look for gold There, they found people eating potatoes. The people of Peru in South America had been eating potatoes f 7,000 years! The Spanish brought the potato back to Europe with them. But people in Europe did not like vegetable. Some people thought that if you ate potatoes this strange your skin would look like the skin of a potato. Other people could not believe that you ate the underground part of the plant, so they ate the leaves instead. This made them sick because there is poison in the leaves, others grew potatoes for their flowers. At one time in France potato flowers were one of the most expensive flowers. Marie Antoinette, the wife of King Louis XVI, wore potato flowers in her hair.