More than 150 years later, potato late blight is still an immense global threat. Potatoes have gradually become one of the world's three most important sources of nutrition, especially in developing nations. But the failure to heed the warnings of an exceptional scientist back in the 1950s is having dire consequences at the beginning of 21st century.

Hot Potatoes tells the story of American plant geneticist, Dr. John Niederhauser, who was the first to discover that the fungus that destroyed crops in Ireland a century before had likely come from the remote Toluca Valley in Mexico. Starting in the 50s he began a decades-long quest to breed blight-resistant potatoes. He was sure that farmers in developing nations could scarcely afford the sophisticated chemical sprays that were becoming the staple of American, Canadian and European potato production. Darkly, he warned that blight might someday become resistant to many chemicals then available. Decades later, that prediction has come true.