April 29, 2016
CapitalPress.com
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Potatoes USA hires global retail marketing manager
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
DENVER — Potatoes
USA has hired a former
ConAgra Foods official to
oversee its effort to bolster re-
tail potato sales domestically
and abroad.
Ross Johnson, 34, the for-
mer national account manager
with ConAgra, joined the na-
tion’s potato promotion board
as its global marketing man-
ager for retail this month.
With Con-
Agra, Johnson
worked close-
ly with several
East Coast gro-
cery chains. He
also has expe-
Russ
rience working
Johnson
with West Coast
grocers during a previous po-
sition with Kraft Foods.
“One thing I’ve learned
is each grocer has its own
strategy. It’s important to
learn what their strategy is,”
Johnson said.
For example, he said
some grocers are now plac-
ing emphasis on offerings in
the periphery of their stores,
prioritizing larger produce
sections and more compre-
hensive delis, which should
open new opportunities for
fresh potatoes.
In addition to working
with U.S. grocers, he’ll aid
grocery chains abroad, with
an emphasis on China, Tai-
wan, Mexico, Indonesia and
South Korea. He’ll head to
China during the first week of
May to attend a trade show,
where he’ll meet with retail-
ers and learn what it will take
to get U.S. potatoes in their
stores.
Johnson said Potatoes
USA has representatives un-
der contract in different ex-
port markets and works to
help buyers understand con-
sumer trends and to make
sure they have the right mixes
of potato products. They use
Nielsen Perishables data and
conversations with buyers to
identify trends, he said.
“I will work with them and
we will come up with promo-
tions or display opportunities
or sampling events,” Johnson
said.
He said Potatoes USA
sometimes prepares potato
dishes to serve in foreign mar-
kets to introduce consumers
to the vegetable.
“We’ll help fund promo-
tions as long as it meets our
requirements,” Johnson said.
Johnson graduated from
Brigham Young University
in Provo, Utah, with a bache-
lor’s degree in business man-
agement, with an emphasis in
marketing. He’s married with
five children.
Potatoes USA once had
separate domestic and inter-
national retail positions but
has combined those. Sarah
Reece is tasked with the orga-
nization’s efforts to work with
consumers.
Capitol buzzing with ag’s littlest lobbyists Growers urged to scout
fields for black leg
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
OLYMPIA — Honeybees,
agriculture’s tiniest ambas-
sadors, are so popular on the
Capitol Campus that 25,000
of them were welcomed
Wednesday to the governor’s
mansion.
The Olympia Beekeepers
Association placed the bees
— just back from pollinating
California almond orchards
— in boxes on the lawn as the
governor’s wife, Trudi Inslee,
watched.
The boxes also are with-
in yards of the Legislative
Building. The beekeepers as-
sociation’s president, Laurie
Pyne, assured the assembled
media that the bees won’t
sting lobbyists or lawmakers
— unless provoked.
“Honeybees are gentle by
their very nature, so they’re
not out to get you,” Pyne
said.
The honeybee agenda has
fared well in Olympia the
past two years, since a state
Department of Agriculture
task force made recommen-
dations on preserving the
pollinators.
To encourage the plant-
ing of pollen- and nectar-rich
plants, lawmakers this year
approved a small pilot project
by the State Weed Board.
Washington
concerns at
‘heightened’ level
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
Don Jenkins/Capital Press
Olympia Beekeepers Association members, from left, Duane McBride and Mark Emrich, place honeybees on
the Capitol Campus April 20. State lawmakers have passed several pieces of legislation to help pollinators.
The board will work with
county weed boards, conser-
vation districts and private
landowners to replace eradi-
cated weeds with bee-friendly
plants.
Last year, lawmakers clas-
sified beekeepers as farmers,
making apiarists eligible for
agricultural tax breaks, help-
ing to offset the increasing
cost of replacing bees and
keeping them alive over the
winter.
The Legislature also this
year appropriated $135,000
to fund a new bee biologist
position at Washington State
University for one year.
Commercial
beekeeper
Tim Hiatt, legislative chair-
man of the Washington State
Beekeepers Association, said
the group will ask lawmakers
next year to permanently fund
the position.
Hiatt said beekeepers hope
the biologist will provide
practical advice on “how to
keep your bees alive.”
In his presentations to
lawmakers, Hiatt has stressed
how important honeybees are
to Washington’s food produc-
tion.
“It’s been great to work
with Republican and Demo-
crats, both,” he said. “It shows
how nonpartisan bees are.”
The honeybees near the
governor’s mansion are part
of an effort to give the Cap-
itol Campus a more natural
and less manicured look, said
Brent Chapman, horticulturist
for the state Department of
Enterprise Services.
The department will install
boxes of mason bees at the
other end of the campus to
pollinate native plants that are
being added to the landscap-
ing, he said.
“It’s not just about honey-
bees being on campus because
it’s cool,” he said. “It’s part of
a bigger objective.”
Farmer, researchers release plant guide
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
Idaho farmers have pub-
lished a guide to native plants,
agricultural crops and weeds in
their region.
Thorn Creek Native Seed
Farms and Thorn Creek Ranch
Inc. have produced 600 copies
of the “Palouse Prairie Field
Guide,” designed to identify
plants found in the prairie re-
gions of Idaho, Oregon, Wash-
ington and Montana.
Genesee, Idaho, farmer Jacie
Jensen worked with David Skin-
ner, retired after 30 years with
the USDA Natural Resources
Conservation Service Plant
Materials Center in Pullman,
Wash., and Gerry Queener, re-
tired biology teacher and native
flower photographer, to publish
the guide.
Skinner died in January. The
guide is dedicated to him.
Jensen wanted to provide an
introductory guide for landown-
ers and for “the curious — peo-
ple who want to learn about the
plants around them.” The guide
is intended for the public, she
said. Crops covered in the guide
include wheat, barley, canola,
mustard, lentils, chickpeas, dry
peas, native grasses and forage
grasses.
Jensen believes including
agricultural crops in the guide
may be unique.
“We just have a lot of people
who want to know what are all
the plants in our region,” she
said.
Jensen and her husband raise
commodity crops and native
seeds on 4,000 acres.
Farmers benefit from a
knowledge of native plants, she
said.
“We learn some things about
our soils by looking at our na-
tive land we have that has not
been tilled,” she said, noting
researchers are comparing agri-
culture land with native soil and
Conservation Reserve Program
land.
The guide is available in
Clarkston, Wash.; Colfax, Wash;
Cottonwood, Idaho; Lewis-
ton, Idaho; Moscow, Idaho;
Pullman, Wash; Spalding, Ida-
ho; Spokane; and Uniontown,
Wash.
Jensen will speak about the
guide at 11 a.m. April 30 at And
Books Too in Clarkston, at 9
a.m. May 1 at Artisans at the
Barn in Uniontown and at 3
p.m. May 7 at Auntie’s Book-
store in Spokane.
Courtesy of Thorn Creek Native Seed
Farms
The “Palouse Prairie Field
Guide” is a book about native
plants, agricultural crops and
invasive weeds in the region.
Pacific Northwest farmers
should scout their winter cano-
la, brassica and crucifer crops
for black leg fungus.
“Industry concern is still at
a heightened level,” said Vic-
tor Shaul, seed program man-
ager with the Washington State
Department of Agriculture.
Black leg was found in Or-
egon and Idaho, but not yet in
Washington, which has a cru-
cifer quarantine and accepts
only seed certified as black
leg-free.
Black leg affects brassica
and crucifer crops, includ-
ing spring and winter canola,
rapeseed, mustard, broccoli,
cabbage, cauliflower, kale, bok
choy, Brussels sprouts, turnips
and tillage radish.
Also a concern is volunteer
canola or mustard. Reports of
volunteer canola in fields and
ditches are up over past years,
said Karen Sowers, an oilseed
cropping systems research as-
sociate with Washington State
University.
Spring canola is being
planted, but farmers will want
to check their fields shortly,
Sowers said.
Fungicides won’t help exist-
ing black leg, Sowers said, but
will prevent it from spreading.
WSU, University of Idaho
and Oregon State University
researchers are available to an-
swer grower questions or test
possible instances of black leg,
Sowers said.
OSU recently held a work-
shop to train people to spot
black leg symptoms in cano-
la. Symptoms first appeared
on trials in February, which
means they were infected
at some point last fall, OSU
extension soil scientist Don
Wysocki said
Black leg could have been
around a while before people
started noticing it, Wysocki
said.
“That suggests to me it
hasn’t been a big bust on
Courtesy of WSU
This photo shows a close-up of
black leg fungus on cauliflower.
Farmers are urged to scout
their fields for the fungus.
yield — we would have no-
ticed huge yield losses, and
we haven’t seen that,” he said.
“We’ve had it, but maybe it’s a
tolerable level.”
Wysocki would like to re-
search fungicide treatments, to
determine if a preventive fall
or spring treatment would pre-
vent the infection, including
the costs and benefits.
“How much more seed
would you get by putting on a
fungicide at those times?” he
said. “Those are questions we
can’t answer at this time.”
Sowers
recommends
awareness.
“It’s not a fear factor at
all,” she said. “It’s a treatable
thing, but we need to keep it
under control so it doesn’t get
to Washington state.”
A WSDA public meeting in
Yakima, Wash., on the crucifer
quarantine, slated for May 12,
was postponed. Researchers
expressed concern over lan-
guage proposing variety trial
ground be isolated from cruci-
fer production, said Shaul, the
WSDA seed program manag-
er.
“Certain trials need to be
in a production field so it’s
treated just like commercial
canola would be,” he said.
“Having that requirement kind
of negates the point of having
a trial.”
Introducing black leg
through trials is not a concern,
Shaul said.
Sowers recommends a four-
year crop rotation between
brassica or crucifer crops and
planting only seed certified as
free of black leg.
Shaul asked industry mem-
bers to alert the department if
they find a seed lot that isn’t
certified.
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