12/10/07 Alberta potato seed growers press their case

Potato seed growers in Alberta are telling their US customers that the border should be open to their product even with the October discovery of the golden potato cyst nematode. Idaho State Department of Agriculture's Mike Cooper is one of those being pressured to open the border and allow ten Idaho growers and three brokers to accept Alberta potato seed. COOPER "We didn't pull a stunt like that. I think the Canadians have been real disingenuous on this whole thing." Cooper says the Canadians haven't even come close to taking the kinds of actions that Idaho and the US instituted when potato cyst nematode was discovered near Shelley. COOPER "Essentially they haven't gotten out of the starting gate as to looking for the scope of their problem. When we had the situation in Idaho Canada not only quarantined potatoes but nursery stock as well and seed potatoes and table stock potatoes. It was six months and 35 thousand samples later before they would come back to the table and talk to us about allowing some of Idaho potatoes back into Canada." Since October 27 hundred soil samples have been taken in Alberta compared to over 80 thousand PCN samples in Idaho. Cooper says there are questions about which Alberta fields were surveyed, where the nematode originated and he thinks its premature to be talking about reopening the border to Alberta seed potatoes giving the potential risk to US growers. Today's Idaho Ag News Bill Scott