A 'thank you' to Andean people and landscapes for the potato

(Originally posted elsewhere on 18 April 2020.)

Me when I’m eating and savoring good food: “Thank you, Andes. Thank you, cloud forest of the high Andes, perpetually shrouded in mist. Thank you, dense tropical rainforest of the upper Amazon along the rugged eastern slopes of the Andes. Thank you, globally-rare Mediterranean-climate chaparral biome of the western slopes of the Andes and your strange desert plants and fog oases. Thank you, western slope of the Andes, for the globally-rare temperate rainforest biome of the Valdivian fjords. Thank you, Andes, for supplying the headwaters of the rivers of the Gran Chaco and Patagonia. Thank you to the dazzling and unparalleled biodiversity of the tropical Andes, where glaciers exist at the planet’s equator, and creatures of both alpine ice and tropical heat can live alongside each other. Thank you, orographic precipitation of the western Andes, for providing some of the highest rainfall rates in the world, which feeds the Choco-Darien bioregion’s rainforest isolated on the Pacific coast. Thank you for the altiplano of the Andes. Thank you for the altitudinal zonation of the Andean slopes, and the ecological diversity at varying elevations that this zonation nourishes. Thank you for the Titicaca water frog. Thank you for the kodkod. Thank you for the incredible number of endemic species in the Andes and the dozens of unique species of hummingbirds. Thank you to Andean condors, the spectacled bear, the mountain tapir, guanaco, vicuna, and the Andean mountain cat. Thank you to the people of the Andes. Thank you, Andean people, for cultivating this food over millennia. Thank you, Andean people, for all the joy brought to my life because of your effort and care. Thank you, Andes and Andean people, for chocolate, peanuts, tomato, quinoa, cashews, and over 4,000 distinct varieties of potatoes.”