10-24 IAN State of Potato
I took a field trip, literally, down through Southeast Idaho last weekend and was amazed at how robust, healthy and plentiful some of the potato crop looked. Remember, the spring was cold and wet and a lot of farmers had trouble even getting into their fields.
A significant part of Idaho’s agricultural economy relies on the potato. Knowing that, and also knowing that the potato seems to always be the subject of dietary scrutiny, that is, the spud is wrongfully blamed for so much of America’s obesity, it led me to wonder how this year’s potato crop was doing as it relates to harvest. I went to the master of potato knowledge, executive director of the Idaho potato commission, Frank Muir and his report was very encouraging: “ On the acres reported looks like we will have 319,000 harvested acres which I would call a right sized crop which is pretty much the same crop as last year plus the additional acres that have been contracted for processing, so it looks like we are set to have a very strong year again, right sized crop so I think our growers will be very pleased with their returns this year.
