Potato Flowers © Guy Hand 2009

Potatoes are notorious users of pesticides and fertilizers.  Back in 2007, I produced an Edible Idaho radio story on how potato production had tainted wells on the Fort Hall Indian Reservation in Eastern Idaho. That lead the Shoshone Bannock tribes on a search for healthier ways to grow potatoes.  An article in the Capital Press suggests that the entire potato industry is now thinking more sustainably:

“The industry has changed and potato breeders are changing spuds to keep up, researchers said at the Idaho Potato Conference this week. The theme was ‘Putting Sustainability into Practice.’

Researchers outlined some of the advantages of new Russet varieties compared with the industry standard — the Russet Burbank.

Most of the new varieties that have come out of the tri-state breeding program (Idaho, Oregon and Washington) in recent years have appreciably higher nitrogen use efficiencies compared with the Burbank, said Jeff Stark, director of the University of Idaho’s potato variety development program.

Alturas, a newer processing Russet, uses about 42 percent less nitrogen fertilizer than the Burbank to produce the same yield, he said. Premier Russet uses about 27 percent less nitrogen and Clearwater Russet uses about 25 percent less.”

In addition, several of the new varieties have greater disease resistance and therefore require fewer pesticides.  Some, for instance, are less vulnerable to blight and nematode attacks than are the standard Burbank and that means less dependence on fumigants and other toxic chemicals.

Jennifer Miller, Sustainable Agriculture Coordinator for NCAP, The Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides is hopeful.  Miller says “this could be a major win-win for farmers and for the public, by saving money for farmers and protecting the health of people and the land. We just need fast food companies like McDonald’s to agree to buy these potatoes from farmers.”

By that Miller means these new varieties of “green” potatoes face slow acceptance from the fast food industry.  A nearly insatiable consumer of the standard Russet Burbank potato and potato products, the fast food industry has been slow to embrace these new, environmentally friendlier spuds.