Potatoes in Decline

A recent newspaper article had the headline potato industry battles declining demand. In the article, this statement was made: ““Potatoes are suffering from the ‘three B blight’ — big, bland and boring.”I had to call Frank Muir, President and CEO of the Idaho Potato Commission. “ I will take the three B's at a time. Ya it is big. It is the biggest vegetable category in the grocery store. People eat a lot of potatoes. It is still a part of the American diet. When we asked consumers what their favorite vegetable is a very high percentage of them say potato, so yeah, it is big. Number two, is it boring, absolutely not. I have heard more chefs than I can count refer to the potato as the perfect canvas upon which to put any flavor or texture. It is almost uncountable, the way that you can make potatoes exciting. As far as bland, I think because the russet brown color, and its white inside, it is easy to characterize it that way. But here in Idaho we have been growing a wide variety of specialty potatoes as complementary to go right along with the Russet.