No-nonsense, no-frills potato news stories from around the world
Exploring how potatoes, animals, farmers, and consumers intersect in a changing food system – from animal welfare and climate concerns to new crop-based business models.
As The Transfarmation Project helps livestock and poultry farmers explore plant-focused futures, potatoes may offer one practical pathway for some farms seeking to transition out of intensive animal agriculture. While potatoes are not an easy crop and require serious agronomic, storage and market expertise, the potato sector could play a constructive role by offering mentorship, technical guidance and market insight to farmers seeking a dignified new beginning.
Although potatoes are not part of animal agriculture, the potato industry increasingly operates within the same food-system frameworks shaped by animal welfare, sustainability, and responsible sourcing. Companies such as McDonald’s, PepsiCo, and McCain now discuss these issues in connected terms, while organizations such as Mercy For Animals are promoting crop-based alternatives through farm-transition initiatives. The result is a broader shift that potato growers and processors can no longer afford to ignore.
Potato processors already drive on-farm change through contracts and incentives – yet animal-welfare-linked outcomes remain largely outside potato procurement. This article proposes a practical solution: a paid, optional “Humane Addendum” added to existing grower programs, built around 3–5 measurable practices such as predator-safe rodent control, wildlife-aware field operations, durable habitat features, amendment sourcing integrity, and byproduct protocols. Success depends on clear payment triggers, lightweight verification, grower-led governance, and transparent reporting.
Potato buyers already influence how potatoes are grown through contracts, sustainability scorecards, and incentive programs – but animal welfare still sits mostly outside potato procurement. This article explores how “humane-linked” practices could realistically enter potato supply chains through paid add-ons tied to measurable, verifiable actions such as wildlife-safe agronomy, safer rodent control, responsible amendment sourcing, and transition support. Key 2026 signals include new payment triggers, practical verification, and transparent reporting.
Potato News Today’s 2025 “Potato Word of the Year” is resilience – not as a slogan, but as the practical requirement for staying profitable and stable in a tougher era. The editorial traces how resilience showed up across the potato system: soil performance and “tired” fields, climate volatility, shifting pest and disease dynamics, higher-stakes storage management, energy and compliance pressures, and oversupply-driven market stress. Runner-up words include transition, whiplash, saturation/glut, and deadpan.
This article explores how potatoes are quietly entering the humane farming conversation. It traces the links between potato production, livestock feed, manure use, plant-based proteins, and farmer transitions out of intensive animal agriculture. By highlighting mixed farms, Transfarmation-style initiatives, and the ethical dilemmas around byproducts, it argues that potatoes can help support more humane, climate-smart systems and serve as a meeting place between farmers, animals, and a changing food system.
This article argues that potato farming already embodies many values driving modern ethical farming – humane treatment, climate responsibility and rural dignity – even if growers rarely use that language. It explores how daily decisions in fields and storages align with wider movements like Mercy For Animals’ Transfarmation project, which helps farmers shift from industrial animal systems to plant-based models, and calls for greater solidarity across sectors to widen the circle of care in our food system.
This article discusses the similarities between traditional potato farming and the transition of livestock farmers to plant-based practices through The Transfarmation Project. Both groups value sustainable and ethical farming, focusing on land stewardship, dignity, and resilience against climate change. The project empowers farmers to reclaim their agency, offering support for a shift towards plant-focused agriculture.
The Transfarmation Project, launched by Mercy For Animals, aims to transition U.S. farmers from industrial animal agriculture to sustainable plant-based farming. Director Katherine Jernigan told Potato News Today that the initiative offers support for farmers seeking to pivot, emphasized by a demonstration hub in North Carolina showcasing sustainable practices. The potato industry is encouraged to participate by mentoring animal farmers in crop planning and other areas, promoting a humane agricultural future.
