“I’m a meat-and-potatoes man.”

That’s a traditional claim by self-proclaimed he-men who look on any fancy, much less foreign, types of food as somehow beneath their contempt.

But the potato remains a valuable part of the American diet, and an increasing staple for people in other parts of the world, such as China and India, where rice traditionally has provided the bulk of their carbohydrates. During the past year, the shortage of rice, and increasingly higher prices, has made developing countries turn more and more to potato cultivation.

September is National Potato Month. But this month, Americans are joining people worldwide in the International Year of the Potato, as proclaimed by the United Nations.

According to the U.N. Web site on the potato year, potatoes are the food of the future and are the world’s number one non-grain food.

Last year, the world produced 320 million tons of potatoes. Developing countries are consuming an increasing number of the tubers, with most grown locally or regionally, rather than being traded internationally.

China is the world’s largest potato producer. About one-third of the potatoes grown in the world sprout in China and Indian, according to the U.N. So someday the praise “all the potatoes in China” could conceivably replace “all the rice in China” to describe a degree of magnitude.

Sure, and someday former Vice President Dan Quayle may learn to spell “potatoes.”

Civilizations have risen, and almost fallen, on potatoes. A history of the potato, written by Linda Stradlyn on whatscookingamerica.net, says that archeologists have discovered that the potato was widely used by the fifth century B.C. in the Andes of South America.

The Incas grew, ate, and even worshiped the potato. Some potatoes were buried with people, and the Incas dried potatoes to take on trips for food.

Spaniards first came into contact with the potato in 1532 during their invasion, and Gonzalo Jimenez de Quesada took them to Spain in 1565, as a poorer substitute (albeit more valuable to the general public in the long run) for the gold he had sought. The Spanish, thinking them a variety of truffle, called them “tartuffos.”

Stradlyn wrote that Sir Walter Raleigh was credited with introducing the potato to Ireland at his plantation there. In 1845, the Irish potato famine resulted in mass starvation, and the migration of millions of Irish to America.

There are some 200 species on wild potatoes in the Americas, according to the U.S. Potato Board.

Say what you will about the potato, its origins are purely American, and Americans still love their potatoes.

And, says Heather Winn, Extension educator for the Cherokee County Oklahoma State University Extension Service, potatoes are good for you.