First you have to get there alive & healthy, not an easy feat, and comes with an enormous price tag. Second without air, you won't have to worry about water or food, another major hurtle, and again a cost... Third not one single country alone could afford it, and the likelihood of collaboration is very slim since we as humans fight for survival on earth already, and haven't mastered that first step...

I thought I read that Mars' soil has perchlorate in it. Did the faux soil contains perchlorate? And if yes, is it in the potatoes?

I wouldn't want want to go to Mars even with plenty of food, water, air and entertainment. Unless you go underground, there is no effective way to shield yourself from radiation every time you're standing on the surface.

Really! come on guys , Matt Damon has already proved we can grow potatoes on mars!

Also no mention of radiation level exposure on potatoes. Would these be grown in an underground Martian cave deep below surface ?

Grow the potatoes and similar plants robotically on Mars for a hundred years. They will cover the planet and terraform it. By that time, an economical transportation system will be available to import humans.

Wont the potatoes become irradiated? also the atmosphere is so light i wouldnt think the concentrations of carbon dioxide would be high enough, although i have to assume they thought about that an mimicked the carbon dioxide levels, but doesnt sound like they mimicked radiation levels.
It does seem promising though, atleast at this preliminary stage.

Getting a potato to sprout is easy, getting a viable crop is a lot harder. Why go to Mars to live anyway? It will be necessary to build pressurised, shielded living quarters, to live there. Its a bit like taking a camping holiday in the arctic, when you live in the Mediterranean. It should be a lot easier to build space stations in the same orbit as Earth, or maybe even in an orbit closer to the Sun. They could spin to produce artificial gravity of 1G, which couldnt be achieved on the surface of Mars, and provide a far better environment, without having to travel 140 + millions of miles.

Scientists following the guidelines of Hollywood vs. Real science. A potato is not probably the first food item that could be grown on Mars that would be sustainable period more likely would be a simple life-form like algae oh that is plated out over a reflective surface and a little bit of water to produce a powdered protein when dried. Algae is certainly a lot easier to transport then potatoes and can be nourished by human urine. So potato guys stop playing around and wasting tax dollars and set up a blue green algae apparatus that will not only produce oxygen but thrive in a Mars like environment since it will take house ins and thousands of years and probably a thermonuclear explosion to melt the ice and throw enough debris into the thin atmosphere two start life before humans could ever terraform that piece of rocks out there called Mars. Humans have a minut threshold of Environmental abilities and Mars certainly is not the planet to sustain life-forms like humans in the foreseeable centuries period sending people there to live would just be a stupid idea resulting in almost guaranteed death. If we do send humans to Mars I suggest inmates. Maybe their composting bodies will produce enough bacterial growth to get things going on that cold dry Rock. A thin film algae is probably the first food item in space that could be sustained is such a nasty environment. Leave the potatoes to the peruvians and Irish.

What makes people live in Antarctica where the lows can reach -70 or the deserts with daytime highs of 120 and freezing at night? People are tough as nails and can find the answers to the most complex of situations. Mars will be figured out, it may not be pleasant at first but as issues are addressed that will change.