Article

2021-10-24 Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia

Potato prices in Russia will decrease - forecast

Archived material is restricted to Rantburg regulars and members. If you need access email fred.pruitt=at=gmail.com with your nick to be added to the members list. There is no charge to join Rantburg as a member.

Posted by badanov 2021-10-24 00:35|| || Front Page|| [11131 views ] Top

#1 Reminds me of a favorite old joke. An American general and a Russian general at a cocktail party a couple years after the fall of the Soviet Union:

Russian general: "My troops get a 2200 calorie battle ration every day in the field."

American general: "That's pathetic. All our boys get access to 3200 calories a day in battlefield conditions."

Russian general: "That's impossible. No man can eat that many potatoes."

Posted by M. Murcek 2021-10-24 06:15|| 2021-10-24 06:15|| Front Page Top

#2 ^ Good one. I enjoy the old jokes or stories. In the href="">old video's I have seen potatoes a vital necessity. I recall the Irish famine but also Norway's famine at the same time. Norway had a massive die off. Icelandic peoples to this day speak in the original Norwegian language and of course many came to America.

Posted by Dale 2021-10-24 09:22|| 2021-10-24 09:22|| Front Page Top

#3 What with potatoes having been introduced from the Americas, the question I have is: What did these people eat before they had potatoes? I suppose, not much.

Posted by ed in texas 2021-10-24 11:25|| 2021-10-24 11:25|| Front Page Top

#4 ^I would think fish primarily.I just assumed potatoes as was said among the Irish but could have been plaque. I will find out.

Posted by Dale 2021-10-24 12:07|| 2021-10-24 12:07|| Front Page Top

#5 ^ yes, herring and potatoes. A native relative spoke of the mass die off. I saw no references to that event myself however.

Posted by Dale 2021-10-24 12:17|| 2021-10-24 12:17|| Front Page Top

#6 No. See the traditional Irish diet. Dairy products have always been what Irish cuisine and diet are known for . . . Best cream and butter to be found anywhere, and tons of it. Milk, sour cream, even a protein milkshake-like product.

The other staple has always been oats, followed by barley.

Add beef and pork, along with some fish, some vegetables such as cabbage, greens, leeks, carrots, and you have the basic elements of a very healthy diet.

All of these were avaialable in large quantities before the potato arrived.

As with all famines, the devastation that occurred in 1847-48 was essentially a political phenomenon caused by idiotic decisions of Her Majesty's ministers. Hint: Britain was EXPORTING grain during the Famine.

Posted by Merrick Ferret 2021-10-24 12:23|| 2021-10-24 12:23|| Front Page Top

#7 ^Thank you for that information. An Irish history not well known to myself. I recalled history taught in High School years ago. Needed an update. Thank you. Norway information was from a related local there. He was a teacher. History taught in other countries has always interested me.

Posted by Dale 2021-10-24 12:32|| 2021-10-24 12:32|| Front Page Top

#8 The arrival of the potato supported a population boom in Ireland, if I understand correctly, so before potatoes, those people could not have existed. Potatoes plus dairy equals a complete protein, and the potato skin contains loads of vitamins and minerals.

The potato blight fungus is found all over the world, with different potato varieties having differing resistance to it. The cause of the famine was that the Irish planted only a single variety, which all succumbed at once.

And then the English overlords were unhelpful.

Posted by trailing wife 2021-10-24 13:07|| 2021-10-24 13:07|| Front Page Top

#9 An interesting proposition: potato blight from color blindness.

"There was an interesting problem that confused some people for a while many years ago.

A survey of school children in Scotland indicated that a larger than normal percentage of Catholic children had an uncommon type of color blindness.

The obvious question was: What does being Catholic have to do with being color blind? A quick check of statistics from other countries indicated normal percentages for Catholics in other countries. That indicated that it was being Scot and Catholic.

Somebody quickly realized that most Catholics in Scotland were descendants of Irish immigrants. A check of statistics in Ireland indicated that this type of color blindness was extremely rare in Ireland and also rarer than usual among Irish in countries other than Scotland. In spite of the statistics, the phenomenon had to be due to being Irish. Strange?

Then the light dawned in somebody's mind. People with this form of color blindness could not tell the difference between blighted potatoes and normal potatoes. Such people used blighted potatoes as seed for next year's crop, resulting in a disastrous crop the next year. These were the first Irish to emigrate from Ireland due to the famine caused by the potato blight. Most of them went to Scotland, the most convenient country (England & Ireland were at odds even then).

That first wave of Irish emigrants mostly went to Scotland and included almost all of those with this type of color blindness. This resulted in its being rarer than usual in Ireland, and higher than usual among Irish in Scotland. Later waves of Irish emigrants (without color blindness) went to the US and various countries other than Scotland, which already had more than its desired share of Irish."

Posted by Skidmark 2021-10-24 15:04|| 2021-10-24 15:04|| Front Page Top

#10 Potatoes were a crop in Imperial Russia, according to Wikipedia.

Posted by badanov 2021-10-24 15:16|| 2021-10-24 15:16|| Front Page Top

#11 Didn't Peter the Great bring potatoes to Russia?

Posted by Chuckles Platypus3282 2021-10-24 16:46|| 2021-10-24 16:46|| Front Page Top

23:16 KBK
22:58 ed in texas
22:11 Nomad
22:07 Nomad
21:58 Ebbomoger Speaking for Boskone4589
21:52 Sgt.DT
21:36 Merrick Ferret
20:52 Frank G
20:45 Silentbrick
20:40 Frank G
20:18 Bertie Crains2651
20:15 Bertie Crains2651
20:13 trailing wife
20:05 Glaque Grumble3477
19:54 Warthog
19:39 Ebbomoger Speaking for Boskone4589
19:26 Crusader
19:22 Crusader
19:19 swksvolFF
19:09 swksvolFF
18:57 Merrick Ferret
17:55 Thing From Snowy Mountain
17:37 49 Pan
17:33 magpie