Website of the Week — International Year of the Potato

Time again for our Website of the Week, when we showcase interesting and innovative online destinations. Our Web guide is VOA's Art Chimes.

This week we visit a site that showcases one of the world's major food crops with text, pictures and video.

"The United Nations International Year of the Potato 2008 is focusing global attention on the key role of the potato and agriculture generally in fighting hunger and poverty."

That video is one of the many features of potato2008.org, a multilingual site that celebrates one of the world's most popular, nutritious and important food crops.

"Hundreds of millions of people depend on potatoes to survive. Where hunger and poverty are greatest, the honest potato is the most important crop after rice, wheat, and maize," said the narrator. "It's the world's No. 4 food crop."

The International Year of the Potato Web site tells you how to grow your own potatoes - that's in the section for kids. And once you grow 'em, you can cook 'em. There's a global recipe book on the site with soups from Korea and Ireland, salads from Peru and Egypt, even dessert recipes - potato pudding from South Africa and potato fudge from India.

And you can read how scientists are studying the evolution of the potato and researching how this unassuming tuber can be improved.

"Helping farm families to earn money growing potatoes is one way of helping them break out of the poverty trap. The fast-growing potato even works well in small plots cultivated by poor families in cities, who account for an increasing percentage of total poverty worldwide."

Celebrate the U.N.'s International Year of the Potato online at potato2008.org, or get the link to this and more than 200 other Websites of the Week from our site, voanews.com.