Community Forest Advisory Committee & Discriminating Against White Potatoes

I'm Lacy Gray with Washington Ag Today.

The diverse twenty member advisory committee appointed by the state departments of Fish and Wildlife and Natural Resources to help in developing a management plan for the Teanaway Community Forest in Kittitas County will hold its first meeting March 31 near Cle Elum. The 50 thousand acre forest was purchased from a New York Company last fall by the DNR in order to preserve it for wildlife and recreation, and to secure environmental support for additional irrigation water for ag producers as part of the Yakima Basin Integrated Plan. The management plan, which will address forestry, fish and wildlife protection, livestock grazing, recreation and watershed, is expected to be completed by June 30, 2015.

Ag Information's Network's Greg Martin recently met up with newly elected National Potato Council President, Randy Hardy, at the U.S. Potato Board's annual meeting in Colorado Springs and asked him if he thought there was a good reason behind USDA's decision to exclude white potatoes from the Women, Infants and Children supplemental food program funds.

HARDY: There is no good reason because they're using scientific information from the mid-nineties which basically said that human consumption of starches was too high. Research done in 2005 and 2010 says the opposite - that adults and children are not receiving enough starchy vegetables in their diet.

Hardy says that the potato industry hasn't given up.

HARDY: Basically, we have gone to the supporters that led the fight and we have drafted a letter to House members and Senate members trying to gather support to send a letter to Secretary Vilsack asking him to reconsider and perhaps put it in the omnibus bill that would reallocate money to buy white potatoes in WIC.

That's Washington Ag Today.

I'm Lacy Gray on the Ag Information Network.