NPC Fights to Protect Growers from Potato Wart

The National Potato Council is pressing USDA and its counterpart in Canada to update the trade protocols to protect U.S. potato growers from potato wart's spread to U.S. farms.

Potato wart, a soil-born fungus that reduces yield and takes years of mitigation efforts to eliminate, was found on Canada's Prince Edward Island in 2021. It is spread by the movement of infected potatoes and contaminated soil and farm equipment.

“As the positive soil tests indicate, potatoes (potato wart host material) continue to be planted in known wart-infested fields. This practice needs to end as it perpetuates the disease and makes it likely to spread to other fields and farms through normal farming, transportation, processing, and waste disposal activities." - Kam Quarles, NPC CEO

Photo via National Potato Council

If potato wart were to enter our borders, the monumental $100B potato industry and the 714,000 U.S. jobs that it supports would be turned upside down. The short-term effects are just the tip of the iceberg as entire farms would be devastated and unusable for years.

To read the full statement and learn more about potato wart, and NPC's efforts against the disease, click here.

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