Potato Growers Join the Climate Change Fight

06/21/21 • 28 min

Eye on Potatoes: A Podcast on All Things Potatoes

Farmers, ranchers, and forest owners are on the frontlines of climate change and have an important role to play in developing solutions. That shared understanding led an unprecedented group — representing farmers, forest owners, the food sector, state governments, and environmental advocates — to form the Food and Agriculture Climate Alliance (FACA), of which the National Potato Council is a member.
This week, Randy Russell, founder of The Russell Group, which manages the Food and Agriculture Climate Alliance, joins the podcast to talk about how the FACA coalition got started and why it was so important that potato growers have taken a seat at the table.
To learn more about FACA, visit agclimatealliance.com.

Previous Episode

Fresh Market Outlook from UPGA’s Mark Klompien

This week, the Eye on Potatoes podcast welcomed Mark Klompien, President and CEO of United Potato Growers of America, to provide an outlook for remainder of this current shipping crop and a look head to plantings and acreage for the 2021 fresh potato crop. Additionally, in his role as Chairman of United Fresh’s Government Relations Council, Mark discussed the United Fresh/PMA merger and what it means for potato organizations.
Learn more about UPGA at unitedpotato.com.

Next Episode

The State of the Industry Mid-Year Report

NPC 2021 President and Maine potato grower Dominic Lajoie and NPC CEO Kam Quarles sat down with us to preview next week's Summer Meeting Virtual and update the industry on a number of policy development that have occurred since the Annual Meeting in February, including:

NPC’s efforts over the pandemic to secure $350 million for growers to offset foodservice disruptions;
Ongoing negotiations between the U.S. and Mexico to reinstate access to U.S. fresh potatoes; and,
The latest efforts on Capitol Hill to address comprehensive immigration reform, including ag labor reform.

For information about or to register for NPC's Summer Meeting, July 26-28, visit nationalpotatocouncil.org/summer-meeting.