Hot Potatoes 7:30, Thursday, October 18, 2001 Center For Theatre Arts Film Forum, Cornell University

Free and open to the public

with filmmaker John DeGraaf and Professor Rebecca Nelson   The Irish potato famine may seem like ancient history, but it's root cause, potato blight, is just as real ­ and dangerous ­ as ever. Potato crops across the world still reel from its effects, and farmers dread the ghastly smell of their fields rotting away. Massive amounts of pesticides are used every year in industrialized nations to keep the blight in check, while poorer countries, unable to afford expensive chemicals, live in fear. Hot Potatoes follows the work of two scientists and their search for a sustainable solution to the age old problem. 82-year-old John Niederhauser, a graduate of Cornell's Agriculture School, has worked for years in Mexico and the U.S. on hybridizing crops, and his work is finally being recognized. 38-year-old Rebecca Nelson, currently a professor at Cornell, has worked in the U.S. and Peru in search of a solution to this worldwide threat. Directed by John DeGraaf. 2001, USA, 57 min. Cosponsored with the Department of Plant Breeding; the Department of International Programs; the Department of Crop and Soil Sciences; and the College of Argriculture and Life Sciences. John DeGraaf has been making acclaimed documentaries for 25 years, including Cornell Environmental Film Festival favorite Affluenza. He is also the founder of the Hazel Wolf Environmental Film Festival. Rebecca Nelson is a plant pathologist whose work is profiled in Hot Potatoes. She is currently an Associate Professor in Cornell University's Department of Plan t Pathology.

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