Potato News from Northern America

PepsiCo has today confirmed that its ambitious new target for greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction has been verified and approved by the Science Based Targets Initiative as being in line with what climate science says is necessary to keep global warming below two degrees Celsius.

With little fanfare, the Maine Board of Pesticides Control unanimously approved on Friday morning the registration of three new types of genetically engineered potatoes that have been developed by Simplot Plant Sciences.

Potandon Produce L.L.C., the exclusive marketing agent for Pinto Creek Co., LLC in Eloy, Arizona, announced Monday that its fresh potato season has begun in Arizona.

Washington potato producers will vote from June 9–23, 2017, on whether to continue the federal marketing order regulating the handling of Irish potatoes grown in Washington.

The Northwest Potato Research Consortium recently approved a combined $1.5 million in grant funding to 37 research projects.

The potato disease Dickeya can be detected by laboratory testing — but is there enough of it present to justify the higher costs? That is the question facing Canadian Seed Potato Growers exporting to the United States who are increasingly asked for the test.

Years before that french fry landed on your plate, the plant that would eventually give rise to the spud your fry was cut from was sealed away deep in a secure-access building, growing slowly in a test tube inside a locked growth chamber.

Soybean producers are gearing up to plant soybeans that are tolerant to both glyphosate and dicamba herbicides. Potato growers should be aware that both glyphosate and dicamba drift can cause irreparable damage in neighbouring potato crops

A partnership between Idaho State University and Boise State University has been awarded an Idaho Global Entrepreneurial Mission (IGEM) grant to research the application of the Humigator in potato storage.

McCain Foods USA has announced it will invest more than USD 200 million into expanding its Burley, Idaho potato processing plant, creating 180 jobs and increasing potato production throughout the state.

East Point Potato 2009 Inc. is scaling up its operations in rural Prince Edward Island, Canada with the help of a CAD 500,000 federal loan.

Health Canada is introducing a regulatory proposal to prohibit the use of partially hydrogenated oils (PHOs)—the main source of industrially produced trans fats—in food to help protect the health of all Canadians.

In the United States the potato chip category maintains a dominant lead over other salty snacks in terms of overall sales, but household spend on meat snacks is a not-too-distant rival and is gaining ground.

McCain Foods USA, Inc. announced yesterday it is expanding the voluntary recall of retail, frozen hash brown products that may contain golf ball materials with Wegman’s Brand 28-ounce bag of frozen O’Brien Hash Browns (UPC 07789036523).

The 13 major potato States held 133 million cwt of potatoes in storage April 1, 2017, up 6 percent from April 1, 2016.

Steve Gangwish of Watertown, South Dakota and Dan Moss of Declo, Idaho were appointed to the Potatoes USA Executive Committee on March 16, 2017

Today Conagra Brands, Inc. (NYSE: CAG) announced that it has completed the acquisition of protein-based snacking businesses Thanasi Foods LLC, maker of Duke's® meat snacks, and BIGS LLC, maker of BIGS® seeds (collectively, Thanasi).

The Texas A&M AgriLife Research plant pathology team intentionally infected potato plants with psyllids positive with the bacterium that causes zebra chip disease, in order to identify promising germplasm in the battle against the disease plaguing the US potato industry for the past 15 years.