Word: tubers
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...when the humble tuber followed the silver to Europe is unclear, but by the early 17th century the stage was set there for a vast expansionary phase in the potato's history. Despite being regularly denounced from pulpits because it was not mentioned in the Bible, this imported esculent (foodstuff) soon became a peasant favorite. Not only did it yield four times more calories per acre than grain, making it an essential insurance policy against famine; it also, as an underground crop, was less likely than stored grain to be looted by armies living off the land in those...
...Today Solanum tuberosum has gone global to become the world's fourth largest food crop after wheat, rice and maize - not bad for a tuber whose ancestor is the highly toxic wild potato and whose closest cousin is the deadly nightshade. And its popularity still has vast potential for growth: Asia has replaced Europe as the center of production as its populations begin to embrace French fries as well as rice...
...McDonald's is hardly the first interest group to challenge the OED's chronicling of unflattering slang. Last year, Britain's Potato Council complained that the definition of couch potato implied that the nutritious tuber was inherently unhealthy, thus driving down business. Instead, the Council campaigned for the term to be replaced by couch slouch, even staging protests outside the OED's Oxford headquarters - but to no avail...
China is the world's biggest exporter of fake goods, from pirated DVDs to knock-off Birkin bags. Add truffles to the list. To the naked eye, the Chinese black truffle, or Tuber indicum, looks virtually indistinguishable from its much vaunted European cousin, Tuber melanosporum, a gastronomic delicacy that perks up winter menus with its earthy pungency. One taste, though, clears up any confusion. The Chinese variety is insipid when compared with the one found in France, Italy and Spain. Yet over the past few years, unscrupulous dealers in Europe and the U.S. have begun passing off the Chinese truffles...
There's more to worry the truffle old school. "We saw in experiments that Tuber indicum is very dominant, competitive and aggressive," frets Gerard Chevalier, a researcher at INRA. He paints a scenario in which errant spores from imported Chinese truffles disperse into the air, contaminate the European countryside and beat the fungi out of their more fragile cousins. Already the ancient truffle terroir is being hammered by pesticides and urbanization. Two centuries ago, French black truffles were so abundant that they were cheaper than tomatoes; since then, the average annual truffle harvest in the Périgord region and beyond...