Seed potatoes are supposed to be certified as disease free. As far as I know, that is the only difference. We grow a fair number of seed potatoes here, as most potato diseases don't survive well in our long winters. As long as you are satisfied that you have no diseases, plant your own, although potatoes from the store MAY be sprayed with anti-sprout to make them keep longer so I wouldn't recommend those if you have other sources.
During the Idaho seed potato years, inspectors came to each farm 3 times each season and inspected the fields for diseases, One plant of one disease "kicked over" the whole field. A small % two other diseases could be tolerated. (I don't remember the names of the diseases.) I remember walking up and down the rows looking for diseases plants before the inspector came.
Wife and I do have a small garden here in north-central Florida, but we don't plant potatoes. When it comes to eating, I do need my taters (More than wife does).
I'm fearing this more and more, is this all fear induced or the Real Thing we're heading into. https://media.mercola.com/ImageServer/Public/2022/July/PDF/shelf-stable-food-pdf.pdfi I've been with Mercola for decades and since Covid he's out there more and more.
Let;s see if this works: https://media.mercola.com/ImageServer/Public/2022/July/PDF/shelf-stable-food-pdf.pdf
It works . (well, the page/url link does). No reason to fear, even though the shortages are very true, very real, and planned.
I love the double-hit the U.K. has done: "Home gardening is bad for your heart." (1) put us in control of your food supply, and (2) it ain't the vax that killed you, it's that hoe you took up with (and climate change.)
I worked for an Austrian guy in the mid-'70s, who came here in the mid-'60s. He was a little boy during WWII in which an Allied bomb blew the windows out of their house, and he lost his father at some point in the war. He told me a lot of stuff that Americans were not (and still aren't) used to hearing. He said that the reason farmers were so heavily subsidized here was probably to keep food cheap. Paraphrased: "When people's bellies are full they don't pay much attention to what the politicians are doing, and so they can do pretty much anything they want." And so here we are, nearly 50 years later. I tell my friends about this coming threat, but most don't believe me. We are so spoiled, and I've been saying that for decades. The big problem of obesity may be going away. I remember after the Mariel Boat Lift from Cuba in 1980, someone had taken video of a food market in Cuba. The shelves were mostly bare -- a can of beans here, a couple cans of corn over there. At the young age of 30 reality hit me. American's complaints over the high price of food suddenly didn't seem that important. Our generation never had to think about this and still largely don't: What if you've got a thousand dollars cash in your pocket and you go shopping at the supermarket, but the shelves are mostly bare? Thanks Franz (and Dad) you were a great mentor in many ways. "Never say 'never'."
I often wonder about this issue. Sure it may be prices. And it may be control. But if we do not maintain the ability to feed ourselves, then other nations can starve us out. It's a national security issue. I'm not certain the free market can have this one covered. Who in their right mind would continue to bust their butts every day risking their health and their finances being farmers when they can sell the land and make more money---guaranteed--that they could earn in an entire generation without lifting a finger?
The small family farm is all but obsolete in modern America. Large corporations are swallowing them up, and millionaires like Bill Gates own a scary amount of farm land.
1) So you don't necessarily think this is being done on purpose? If it isn't being done on purpose, then what is the innocent explanation for it? 2) We can have free markets or government-controlled markets (socialism). The government is purposely causing this market problem, IMO. Giving them MORE power doesn't seem like a good solution. We have a hundred years of global history showing the disasters and untold deaths caused by central planning. Am I missing your point?
I was speaking of our food supply at a higher level, not in the context of today's "If we can't vax 'em out, we'll starve 'em out" tactic. Yes, it is being done on purpose. But at a higher level (and before all of this stuff) I've often worried about our ability to feed ourselves. Of course I don't trust government, but the free market exists to move resources where they will yield the most return. Resources are free to flow into farming, and resources are free to flow away from farming. The free market has no ethical duty to make sure any one of us has enough to eat. Setting current issues aside, back in the 70s your friend said government ensured we have enough to eat to keep us satiated. If that is true, and we want government out of the middle, what's the alternative? Periodic shortages/starvation as the norm? Under what circumstances is not having enough to eat an acceptable state of affairs? I'm no big believer in government doing anything right, but the food industry only exists to the extent there's sufficient profit in it to justify the consumption of resources. I'm taking the coward's way out and stating that I do not have a firm answer on what the state of affairs should be. But what would we say if tomorrow those who work farms decide their labor & resources can be put to better use elsewhere? What do we do when the value of their land goes up to the point that liquidation makes the best business sense? What then? Farms only exist due to the free will of those who own & run them. Do we just let it happen...after all, it is private property. For as long as this industry has fascinated me (and concerned me), I know darned little about it. But our lives depend on it. I can go without a new pair of Nikes, but I gotta eat.