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where do potatoes come from

Potatoes originally come from the Andes mountains of South America, especially the region around Lake Titicaca in what is now southern Peru and northwestern Bolivia.

Quick Scoop: Where do potatoes come from?

Potatoes weren’t born in Irish fields or British pubs—they started high up in the cold Andean highlands of South America. Indigenous peoples like the Aymara and the Inca domesticated wild potatoes there thousands of years ago and bred many different varieties that could handle thin air, frosts, and rocky soils.

Over time, Spanish colonizers took potatoes from the Andes to Europe in the 1500s, and from there they spread across the world, eventually becoming the global comfort food we know today—fries, mash, chips, and more. So when you ask “where do potatoes come from,” the short answer is: they come from the Andean mountains of Peru and Bolivia, then hitched a ride around the planet thanks to human trade, empire, and agriculture.

TL;DR: Potatoes were first domesticated thousands of years ago in the Andes of southern Peru and northwestern Bolivia, then spread to Europe and eventually the rest of the world.

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