Climate change, booming potato chip market threaten Idaho potato harvest

As Idaho prepares to embrace its potato state stereotype by dropping a giant spud in front of the Statehouse on New Year’s Eve, Gem State farmers are expressing serious concern about the fate of Idaho potato crops in 2016. According to the Idaho Department of Agriculture, more than 131 million units of potatoes were harvested across 316,000 acres of Idaho farmland during 2013. That was more than 33 percent of all of the potatoes harvested in the United States. This morning’s Twin Falls Times-News reports that Bruce Huffaker, publisher of the North American Potato Market News told growers at the University of Idaho conference earlier this month that an excess of potatoes grown in other parts of the U.S. (i.e. North Dakota, Wisconsin, Minnesota) during the past harvest year drove down prices. More