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. Around 1780, the people of Ireland started to eat potatoes. They advantages. The potato grew on poor found that potatoes had many land, and it grew well in their cold and rainy climate. It gave more food than any other plant, and it needed little work. All they had to do was to plant the potatoes, and then they could do other work on the farm On a small piece of land, a farmer could grow enough potatoes to feed his family. A person could eat 8 to 10 pounds of potatoes a day, with some milk or cheese, and be very healthy Soon, potatoes became the main food in Ireland. Then, in 1845, a disease killed all the potatoes in Ireland. Two million people died of hunger. Many Irish who did not die came to the United States at this time. Over a million rish came to of John F. Kennedy. America; one of them was the great-grandfather In other parts of Europe, people did not want to change their old food habits. Some preferred to die of hunger rather than eat potatoes In 1774, King Frederick of Germany wanted to stop his people from dying of hunger. He understood that potatoes were a good food, so he told the people to plant and eat potatoes or else his men would cut ir noses. The people were not happy, but they had no choice and so