11/19/08 ISDA's take on Alberta seed

Potato seed from Alberta, Canada has been off limits to Idaho and other US growers because of the discovery of the golden nematode in some fields north of the border. Idaho doesn't get much seed from Alberta but Washington State does, about 30 percent of its potato seed. The Washington Potato Commission is convinced that the way will be cleared for that seed to be imported across the border disease free. Idaho State Department of Agriculture's Mike Cooper isn't so sure and says the Canadians haven't done the testing and sampling that they promised to do. COOPER "If Canada had just done that up front back in May when this thing first came down we wouldn't be talking about all of this right now but Canada chose to put their eggs into a basket of just sampling fields for export and they sampled everything at that one pound rate for export and completely ignored the delimiting survey and the trace back survey." That work should involve five pound soil samples says Cooper. He says one pound samples don't show enough and the Canadians seem more interested in getting a political solution to the problem than following scientific guidelines. Voice of Idaho Agriculture Bill Scott