Potatoes USA is ending its investment in and association with the Culinary Institute of America.
The Packer reports that Blair Richardson, president and CEO of Potatoes USA, announced the group’s decision in an Aug. 30 update at the Idaho Growers Shipper Association convention. He said the decision wasn’t easy but was ultimately necessary because of anti-potato messaging from the culinary group, a nonprofit that helps train chefs.
“We’ve been partners with the Institute for well over a decade, we have spent well over a million dollars with this program — and in the past year we have spent $100,000 with the Culinary Institute of America,” Richardson said.
The Institute can be an effective organization to reach culinary professionals relating to menu trends, but Richardson said its Menus of Change initiative is anti-potato and anti-agriculture. The initiative also has put out anti-dairy, anti-pork and anti-beef messages, he said.
After being a sponsor for the Menus of Change program for a couple of years and working to tell the nutrition story of the potato — without a satisfactory response — Potatoes USA has decided to pull out of the program, Richardson said.
