Long before there was the restaurant-quality twice-baked potato or a healthy fast food ... either — there are actually more ...

The future doesn't look that bright if we don't do something."To circumvent a potentially catastrophic potato crash, Peruvian farmers are sending seeds from heirloom varieties of the root vegetables ...

the International Potato Center in Peru has preserved almost 5,000 varieties. Martin Mejia / AP Images When potato plants bloom, they send up five-lobed flowers that spangle fields like fat purple ...

It is one of the most consumed foods in Peru, sweet potato ... The International Potato Center (CIP) preserves more than 2,000 varieties of sweet potato, among which is the purple one.

The CIP genebank has the largest in vitro collection of potato types — more than 4,600 native varieties, around 3,000 of which are from Peru — and most of the potato’s wild relatives.

Mejía believes that understanding the unique traits of each potato variety is key to saving them ... and expressed concern that neighboring Peru has been more successful in promoting Andean ...