POTATO FACTS...
Sustainability

Potatoes have a big role to play in feeding the world and looking after the planet for future generations. They are the third biggest food crop in the world and as the world is increasingly facing land and water issues, are a fantastic food choice.

Potatoes are a really efficient plant. 85% of what grows can be eaten - we don’t eat the leaves. Compare that to other crops like rice, wheat and maize where we can only eat around 50%.

All the potatoes we need are grown in New Zealand. There is less impact on the planet when we don’t have to transport our food to us.

Potatoes need less water to grow than other carbohydrates. It takes around 3,000 litres of water (300 buckets) to grow 1kg of rice, 500 litres (50 buckets) to grow 1kg of wheat and only 75 litres for 1kg of potatoes (8 buckets)!

Potatoes grow in all sorts of conditions and produce more food, more quickly, on less land and harsher climates, using less water than any major crop. Over the next two decades, the world's population is expected to grow on average by more than 100 million people a year, so the challenge is to ensure food security while protecting natural resources. More than 95 percent of that increase will occur in the developing countries, where pressure on land and water is already intense. Potatoes are seen as part of the solution to world food security.

Studies considering the carbon footprint of potatoes show potatoes produce less greenhouse gases than most other foods - one study in Scientific American ( February 2009) shows weight for weight potatoes generate 57 times less than beef and 13 times less than chicken. They also are more favourable the other fruits and vegetables. More study is being undertaken in this area.