Jittery investors might want to shift their financial-company stocks to potato futures.

Rising global food prices, notably rice and corn, have been fueling protests and other unrest for months now as UN officials warned things would get worse. A key problem that’s no longer news: Corn is now valued not just as human food and livestock feed but as fuel (ethanol).

Now “political leaders from poor countries contending that these fuels are driving up food prices and starving poor people,” according to a news analysis in the NY Times, which also notes that “food riots contributed to the dismissal of Haiti’s prime minister last week.”

Meanwhile, the “humble potato” is making a comeback.

Potatoes have a history of popularity surges and disappointment. They originated in South America became an important crop in Europe (though people in many countries disdained them at first) around 1700. French commoners, in particular, were loathe to eat them. But brutal winters associated with the “little ice age” made the spud an attractive crop compared to wheat, which repeatedly got slammed by the weather.

The Irish, after wholly embracing the potato to the point of eating almost nothing else, made the mistake of relying on one variety that was prone to disease, hence the great Irish potato famine in the mid-1800s.

If any of that is news to you, then you probably didn’t realize that 2008 is the year of the potato. What a timely designation that’s turning out to be.

Today, Reuters reports: “Peru’s leaders, frustrated by a doubling of wheat prices in the past year, have started a program encouraging bakers to use potato flour to make bread. Potato bread is being given to school children, prisoners and the military, in the hope the trend will catch on.” Meanwhile China has become the world’s #1 potato grower (who knew?) and India plans to double its potato production within 10 years.

The top potato producers, in millions of tons annually:

1. China 72
2. Russian Fed. 35
3. India 26
4. Ukraine 19
5. United States 17

SOURCE: FAOSTAT via potato2008.org

Merely growing more potatoes won’t, however, solve the global food shortage nor stop the inflation of grocery prices anytime soon. Those problems are linked also to population growth, distribution problems and, of course, fuel prices. Oil surged again to new record highs today. U.S. inflation soared in March, with food and energy leading the way (as John McCain calls on the Feds to suspend gas tax for summer [Have you ever noticed how presidential candidates have all the answers for things that should be done under the current administration? But I digress...]).

Potato Facts: The potato, a tuber, is part of the Solanaceae, “nightshade” family of flowering plants. Nowadays, just as centuries ago, more than 100 varieties can be found in South America. The potato is loaded with starch and some micronutrients. If you eat them, you still need whole grains and other vegetables. They are low in fat, except when laden with butter or sour cream or fried into fries or chips.