02/06/08 Potato Man

Potato Man for all Seasons. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. Each year during the National Potato Council's annual meeting The Grower magazine and its sister publication honors a potato industry leader for his or her lifetime achievements. This year the award went to Skagit Valley potato grower Roger Knutzen. KNUTZEN: It's probably one of the top awards I've received from the standpoint of when you receive awards from the people you work with  your peers that's the ones that really come from the heart and that's what made it so special is it was given by those people that you carry respect from and you learn from and any time I work for the potato industry, that's how we make our living and it's very since and from the heart. It's a labor of love. Knutzen has been active in agricultural concerns for over two decades and says that the potato industry is working hard on several issues. KNUTZEN: I think whether its sales and of course they are working very hard on that on export markets and that's a real big thing and the environmental situation is very, very serious and I think the council puts an awful lot of effort on that. John Keeling is working on bills and items like that constantly and I guess those would be the two main things  would be environmental and sales. Most recently, Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire appointed Knutzen to the state's Economic Development Commission KNUTZEN: The Governor has put together a committee  they felt that they want to hire people that can come up with new innovative ideas and then when it comes to the people that actually make these ideas work, the people that make investments  it seems as though there is a gap in between so what the Governor wants to do is we're in the process of hiring people right now working at Washington State University and the University of Washington to come up with new ideas and then the Governor and the legislature is going to provide money to bridge that gap between the idea and actually making it a reality. Knutzen Farms raises mixed crops and grows, packs and ships red, white, yellow and chipping potatoes. He says this award needs to be shared. KNUTZEN: An award like this isn't won by one person, it's a team and we have three of our kids  my wife LouAnn and myself and they are in the process of taking over the business and so these awards are not awarded to one person but rather the group. It takes a community and so I share that with them. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.