No-nonsense, no-frills potato news stories from around the world
Defra and UKRI, as part of the Farming Innovation Programme, recently announced funding for ‘Potato-LITE’ – a multimillion pound project over four years, that will develop novel machinery and cultivation practices for UK-based potato farms to minimise tillage intensity, improve soil health and lower greenhouse gas emissions (GHG).
The Potato Sustainability Alliance (PSA) is set to host its 2nd Annual Summer Symposium at the Sysco Global Support Center in Houston, Texas, from June 20-22, 2023. The event, which aims to advance discussions surrounding potato sustainability and celebrate the industry’s progress, is now open for registration, offering special early bird discounts until May 1st.
Frito-Lay Frito-Lay North America and Quaker today announced the opening of an industry-leading Greenhouse Learning Center at its R&D headquarters. The Learning Center will be used to field test, measure, and analyze compostable packaging with an aim to speed up the rate of innovation. This facility represents a key milestone to achieve the company’s PepsiCo Positive (pep+) packaging goal to design 100 percent of packaging to be recyclable, compostable, biodegradable or reusable by 2025.
McDonald’s Corp. said it will weigh the pros and cons of reusable packaging in its restaurants worldwide, addressing an environmental predicament as European laws have begun to force the fast-food titan to offer its fare in more durable containers. Takeaway food and beverage packaging makes up 88% of the world’s coastline litter, according to a 2021 study published in the journal Nature. Investors and governments are increasingly pressuring restaurants to cut plastic waste.
Water is one of the world’s most vital resources, as the Associated Press reports. In Paraguay, a man displaced by a rising river hauls heavy buckets of it to his temporary home. In the Philippines, a girl uses a manual pump to get just enough to wash. In Venezuela’s neighborhoods, it’s collected in wells to flow into hundreds of homes. Watch a picture collage here.
Launched in 2017, the potato variety Kingsman has developed quickly in popularity to become Scotland-based potato breeder Cygnet PB Ltd.’s first globally successful variety. After two seasons of field production with CSS Farms, Kingsman exceeded seed crop yield expectations, prompting Cygnet PB Ltd to involve additional partners for commercial trials in 2023.
To guarantee healthy soils for sustainable agriculture and food production, you first need to know their condition. FAO’s Global Soil Doctors Programme started to do just that —assessing the condition of soils and guiding farmers in remedying soil problems. The educational material and training modules from this programme help farmers to stay vigilant and responsive to soil health, a vital component of their livelihoods.
“For farmers and the industry to tell an accurate and useful sustainability story for potatoes, we need to incorporate additional aspects into our sustainability programs beyond just asking questions and getting answers and scoring them on a scale,” says John Mesko, Executive Director of the Potato Sustainability Alliance (PSA) during the latest episode of the organization’s podcast series.
The Spanish University of Alicante’s Waste, Energy, Environment and Nanotechnology (REMAN) research group has developed a process to obtain a water-soluble plastic material based on potato starch. It will soon be introduced on the market through the UA technology-based company Solublion. This new material is also compostable and biodegradable, so it is suitable for use as a flexible film, preferably in bags and packaging, and has great advantages over existing materials.
Many Irish potato farmers “will be forced out of business” unless the prices charged by farmers are increased, according to the Irish Farmers’ Association. As Robert Besser reports for Big News Network, Farmers’ Association president Tim Cullinan said commercial potato farming is “simply not viable” this year due to increased land rentals, fertilizer, fuel, and storage costs.
Farmers are warning the food shortage crisis will get worse later in the year, due to the prolonged dry spell and a shrinkage of irrigated crop production, as Philip Case reports for Farmers Weekly. A combination of a lack of rainfall over the past eight months, rising input and energy costs and stagnant supermarket prices is forcing growers to cut back on crop production.
The What climate-smart agriculture means for smallholder farmers, report by McKinsey & Company reveals climate change will also severely affect land suitability for crop production. With snallholder farmers producing a third of the world’s food and demand set to soar 60% by 2050, this could pose a threat to global food security. McKinsey’s report identifies 33 climate adaptation and mitigation measures for smallholder farmers, from rotational grazing to dry direct-seeding technologies.
A new EU-funded project, WASTELESS, aims to develop tools and recommendations for measuring, monitoring and ultimately reducing food loss and food waste by at least 20% annually. The multidisciplinary consortium comprises 16 beneficiaries, 12 affiliated entities and 1 associated partner each from 14 countries. Europatat is proud to be part of this new project, the industry body says in a recent news post.
A Pune-based startup in India claims to have created the world’s first recycled sunglasses made from empty packets (bags) of chips. Founder Anish Malpani says on his Twitter channel: “We just made the world’s first recycled sunglasses from ‘impossible-to-recycle’ plastic waste – metalised packets of chips. And this is just the start.”
Dozens of furrows lie barren in a dusty field on the Bolivian highlands. It should be replete with potato plants ready for harvest, but a deadly combination of drought and frost proved too much for the crop. “In the Bolivian highlands, we are fully experiencing the effects of climate change,” said loacel NGO Cipca technician Orlando Ticona.
The Irish Farmers Association (IFA) has warned that many farmers in Ireland are struggling with the unaffordable price and limited availability of land for planting as the planting season approaches. This situation, along with existing challenges for potato growers, is causing a decline in growers’ confidence, according to the IFA’s weekly market report.
Swedish design studio Tomorrow Machine has collaborated with juice company Eckes Granini to develop a bio-based bottle called GoneShells, which is made from potato and can be eaten, home-composted or dissolved under water when finished with. GoneShells was inspired by the way a fruit is protected by its peel. Once finished with, the bottle can be wound down in the same way thanks to its spiral-like structure. Then, it can be eaten, home composted or dissolved in a kitchen sink.
A Norfolk farm business which has invested in its future sustainability is celebrating after being named national Potato Grower of the Year. Heygate Farms Swaffham won the title at the second-ever National Arable and Grasslands Awards ceremony in London. Farms director William Gribbon said the accolade was a tribute to the efforts of his 12-strong team, the strength of the firm’s Norfolk Peer and Norfolk Keepers potato brands – and a “significant investment” in sustainability.
McCain has today confirmed a further £35m of investment in its supply chain, as it seeks to boost supplies of UK potatoes and bolster its regenerative farming initiatives. McCain says its indexation model for determining payments to the farmers who supply the company had resulted in a 31 per cent increase in contract pricing to “ensure its growers continue to be fairly compensated in light of soaring inflation”.
Today McCain Foods Limited (McCain) released its Sustainability Report, underpinning its commitment to producing delicious, planet-friendly food. The report includes the organizations sustainability results from the past Fiscal Year, demonstrating how McCain is responding to the challenges faced by climate change, its priority on enhancing soil health and farming partners’ transition to more regenerative practices.
In this Idaho Farm Bureau podcast, Steven Sherman, BioLogiQ’s CEO, shares details of BioLogiQ’s NuPlastiQ, a 100% natural material made from potato, corn and tapioca starches and naturally sourced glycerin, which, when processed, produces pellets that can be blended with existing plastics. These BioBlends help to create more sustainable plastic products.
Frito-Lay today announced the near completion of its Modesto, California, facility’s transformation into a first-of-its-kind showcase for sustainable manufacturing, warehousing, and distribution technologies. It is one of the largest Frito-Lay manufacturing facilities in the US, and is the first Frito-Lay facility to implement site-wide alternative fuel vehicles, on-site renewable energy generation, energy storage equipment and employee electric vehicle charging stations.
Today Lamb Weston / Meijer released its Sustainability Report 2021-2022. The company says it made good progress on the three key challenges through which it believes it can make the greatest contribution, as it strives to achieve its sustainability agenda and create positive impact from potato to plate.
South Africa’s potato farmers are ending the year off under immense pressure. And although industry players are optimistic about the industry’s future, it will be years before the industry recovers and farms return to previous levels of profitability, as Duncan Masiwa reports for Food For Mzansi. As it stands, potato farmers in the country are not turning in profits.
Discussions on supply contracts for the 2023 potato crop have commenced early, although at the time of writing, many potato growers in the UK are no further forward in reaching agreement, as Robert Harris reports for Farmers Weekly. A reduction in area is both necessary and inevitable, says Andersons director Nick Blake. A number of growers are choosing to exit.
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