EEUU: How potatoes rule the US, in 2 charts

Whether they’re fried or mashed, potatoes remain a staple in the American diet, with potatoes accounting for 15 percent of vegetable farm sales. Even though sweet potatoes are currently experiencing anuptick in popularity largely thanks to their nutritional benefits, potato remains king among American farmers. More than 44 billion pounds of potatoes were harvested in 2015, compared with just a little under 3 billion pounds of sweet potatoes.

One of the reasons potatoes continue to be such a dominant part of the American diet is that we’re constantly inventing new ways to eat them. Starting in 1970, processed potato products surpassed raw potatoes in sales, and consumption of fresh potatoes fell from a high of 81 pounds per person in 1960 to an average of 42 pounds by the 2000s. But potato production has continued to increase as people find different ways to get their potato fix. On average, Americans now consume 55 pounds of frozen potatoes per year in addition to 17 pounds of potato chips.

Potatoes’ distant vegetable relatives, squash and pumpkin (or eggplant, a type of squash), are not nearly as popular with Americans, butpumpkin production has steadily increased in recent years from a little less than 1 billion pounds in 2000 to a little more than 1.3 billion in 2014. Squash production, on the other hand, has slowly declined from almost 900 million pounds in 2000 to a little under 575 million in 2014.

ams — those oft-misunderstood tubers — aren’t even important enough to be measured by the USDA as an agricultural commodity. But Vox’s Joss Fong will tell you a little bit more about its confusing history.