OLYMPIA, Wash.–The executive director of the Washington Potato Commission is on an unusual campaign to protest a decision by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Chris Voigt is on day 22 of a diet that even he admits is a little crazy. He’s eating 20 potatoes a day for 60 days. Chris Voigt is eating...
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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...
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A little cosmic convergence of potato news: Last night, PBS ran it’s ambitious 2 hour program “Botany of Desire,” based on Michael Pollan’s popular book about the evolutionary relationship of plants and humans. In the section of the show profiling potatoes (all shot in Idaho), Pollan “points up the peril of trying to control...
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We all know that Idaho is famous for potatoes. But did you know that nearly a third of those potatoes are grown on the Fort Hall Indian Reservation, near Pocatello? The soils there are perfect for growing spuds. But that light, sandy soil also leaches agricultural chemicals into the ground water.
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