April 2004
Immortalizing
Potatoes with Postcards
Jim Bryan spent his
life working with potatoes all over the world. Now, a little bit of
that world is captured in his collection of over 600 potato postcards.
The postcards come from near and far and showcase anything from potatoes
featured on a French menu to full potato sacks being hauled down the
street in Moses Lake, Wash. Bryan's extensive collection has taken years
of active searching to find, and a love of potatoes keeps him going.
Linking the Potato Industry: Oregon Researcher
Click. Enter, click, click. Copy, paste, click.
Save. Upload. Those are the sounds emanating from Alvin Mosley's Oregon
State University office. On a given day, he's likely in there adding
more links to the school's Potato Information Exchange. From knowing
nothing about Web building just a few years ago to maintaining a site
that boasts 4,000 links to cyber potato information, Mosley believes
the Web is an important part of the future of potato extension work.
Potato Industry Recognizes Support from Key Legislators
This year's Potato Leadership of the Year
awards acknowledged a mutually shared commitment among a diverse group
of the State's legislators. The annual awards by the Washington Potato
& Onion Association (WP&OA) recognize members of both caucuses
in the State Senate and House for their outstanding leadership on significant
agricultural issues.
Simplot Plant in Hermiston to Close
The J.R. Simplot Company will permanently
close its Hermiston, Ore., potato processing plant in a phased shutdown
over the next nine months. The plant and related support operations
at Hermiston employ 625 people. The closure results from flat-to-declining
demand for frozen potato products in both domestic and global markets
served by the Hermiston facility.
McCains Food Founder Dies
Harrison McCain C.C., co-founder and Founding
Chairman of McCain Foods Limited, died March 18 at the Lahey Clinic
in Boston. McCain had been in declining health for some time, according
to the company. He directed the growth of McCain Foods for 45 years
as it grew from a small French fry processing operation in Florenceville,
New Brunswick, Canada, to the world's largest producer of French fries
and a $6.4 billion a year international frozen food firm. He was 76
years old.
Book Review: Potato Production Systems
There are many books that bear the name "potato"
in the title, but none are quite as comprehensive and thorough as Potato
Production Systems, a book co-edited by Jeffrey C. Stark and Stephen
L. Love of the University of Idaho. This 420-page, 350-photo guide to
everything from variety basics to calculating cost of production has
already garnered much deserved attention from those in the potato industry.
Shippers Want More Railcars
Action is needed now, not next fall, to ensure
the availability of an adequate number of railcars to handle eastern
Washington's fall potato crop. That message was made clear Feb. 3 during
the annual winter meeting of the Washington Potato & Onion Association
(WP&OA) and Washington Perishable Shippers Cooperative Association
(WPSCA) held in Moses Lake.