Where's the Outrage?

The BBC has reported that the monstrosity above is the world’s largest potato. It was grown in Lebanon and weighs 25 pounds.  The man holding the potato is farmer Khalil Samhat. He says he raised it with no funky chemicals or tricks of any kind.

However, Scientific American reports that what you see below may well be a sweet potato.  The world sweet potato record is 81 pounds.  

Here is how Scientific American explains the difference between a potato and a sweet potato—

“A sweet potato is a modified root and a potato is a modified stem and, therefore, a [true] tuber.  One of the big differences is that the sweet potato is a perennial and they continue to grow indefinitely while a potato has a predetermined length of season after which the plant will senesce and you’re done, which is probably why your biggest potato is in the eight-pound range.” 

Here is the National Potato Council. 

Here is a link to the United States Sweet Potato Council.

Here is information about agriculture in Lebanon.

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