Potato Expo

The 2014 Potato Expo gets under way next week in San Antonio, Texas in the same location as the first expo held 6 years ago. John Keeling, Executive VP and CEO of the National Potato Council says the industry is excited about the event.

KEELING: There's a lot of enthusiasm. There's a great set of speakers. Also we've seen sponsorship and number of booths in the trade show rise so we're excited about that. We have good attendance so far and a lot of enthusiasm so we're very excited about it.

2013 had it's fair share of challenges for the potato industry including some hold overs.

KEELING: Growers and members of the industry are continuing to focus in how we expand demand for potatoes and how we get the message about potato nutrition out there because you've got a lot of consumers who are apparently still operating with tidbits of information that they got from Adkins diet or other things that have encouraged them to continue to find ways to ignore their desire to consume potatoes.

Keeling says the 2014 Potato Expo has lot of great programs scheduled.

KEELING: We've got some breakout sessions that are really going to be good in terms of just the quality of speakers and just the topics. I think you are going to see a lot of grower interest in those. The big ticket items: clearly Ben Stein. He's sort of an American icon in his own way and we've got Lowell Catlett from New Mexico. A lot of ag people know Lowell.

Ex New York Yankee pitcher Jim Abbott will also be a featured speaker.

That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.