While potatoes may not be viewed as exotic in the post-Ottoman world today, they have only been cultivated in regions such as Anatolia and Syria for less than two centuries. The Ottoman Empire was a relative latecomer to the ecological exchange that brought potatoes to every continent of the world, revolutionizing diets wherever it went. In the nineteenth century, Ottoman cultivators interested in experimenting with European methods of agriculture introduced the plant to the Ottoman Empire, where there was relatively little taste for tubers. However, it was drought induced famine and not a change in tastes that brought about the first serious efforts at promoting potato cultivation in Anatolia during the late nineteenth century. The Ottoman administration saw the potato as a possible solution to hunger and encouraged planters to experiment with the crop. Yet, in an agrarian economy increasingly dominated by commercial agriculture, its spread was limited. This paper seeks to analyze the ways in which economic crisis has shaped diets in the modern Middle East. By studying the Ottoman encounter with the potato, it emphasizes the role of state reactions to famine in promoting new foodstuffs. In this discussion, I will devote considerable space to the Ottoman experiment with the potato during the First World War. With the army and populace starving, the government transformed sparsely populated regions such Adapazarı into potato plantations that could feed soldiers and hungry populations in the capital. Millions of potatoes were produced largely by a command economy utilizing labor battalions and seized lands. Thus, the story of the potato also provides a window onto how state activities play a role in shaping everyday diets.