Dear folks, I wish to welcome you to Potato News Today! Thank you for taking the time to visit here – I honestly hope you will find it to be worth your time. I can assure you that I do my honest and utmost best to publish sensible, breaking potato related news stories on this site as soon as it comes to my attention. Potato News Today is edited, published and maintained by me, Lukie Pieterse.
The better part of my professional career over the past 40 years has been dominated by the potato crop in some shape or form – about 35 years, to be specific. After spending a few years in academia, I was privileged to operate my own 2,500 acre farming operation in South Africa since 1987, and the potato section of my farm was devoted to growing drip irrigated potatoes under contract for most of the major potato processors operating in that country at the time, including McCain Foods, Frito-Lay, Heinz and a couple of others.
I sacrificed my farming operation in 1996 when I decided to emigrate to Canada – in essence so that my two beautiful young children (babies back then) would have the opportunity to grow up and live peaceful lives in one of the most civilized countries in the world – Canada. I have never regretted that decision, but I need to mention that I still miss my potato operation dearly to this day…
field near Guelph, Ontario (many years ago…)
Here in Canada I launched a potato consulting business, since I could not “move” my potato farm, as you can understand? I did become involved in a number of local and international potato related projects over the years though, and also ventured into the world of online and print publications with a sole focus on the potato crop.
In late 1996 I launched the first – and only online news portal devoted to potatoes on the Internet at the time – and have been publishing potato related information on numerous other websites ever since.
Potato News Today is a “modern-day” version of that first bare-bones old website of 26 years ago (when we still uploaded content to websites via the age-old “dial-up” connection, believe it or not…) I launched Potato News Today in 2014.
I am humbled and most grateful to say that over the years I’ve been privileged to meet so many dedicated and wonderful potato folks online in a great many countries around the world where potatoes are produced – I greatly appreciate that, no doubt.
Folks, any and all of you are most welcome to get in touch with me at any time if you wish? Please feel free to send along news and information about your potato operation, your company or your potato organization that you belong to – I will be happy to review it for publication here on Potato News Today, as well as my social media channels Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. We reach thousands of potato folks across the world on a daily basis.
I offer companies an opportunity to introduce and promote their products and services to this site’s visitors in a number of ways – have a peek at this page, and feel free to get in touch with me for further details. We have many loyal potato folks around the world who regularly take the time to pay Potato News Today a visit.
Thanks again for your time for visiting Potato News Today, and kindest wishes from the east coast of Canada!
Lukie
[email protected]
