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12 CapitalPress.com October 13, 2017 Harvest festival will take place a second time on Oct. 21 HARVEST from Page 1 two-week potato harvest break, which also provides vi- tal income for the families of many students who work for the growers. “Potato harvest is import- ant because it’s so timely, and if you don’t get it done within that time period, you could have a hard frost and you can’t store them,” Kress said. “It’s a whole communi- ty effort because there are so many jobs that aren’t highly technical that people can do that aren’t well trained.” At Kress’ food truck, crop consultants and neighbors often drop by for a meal and friendly conversation, and workers constantly stop by to thank the couple in person. “We’ve got a dedicated staff, and it’s sort of a thank- you everyday,” Kress said as he stirred spaghetti sauce. “I’ve never been a believer that you’re above any job.” John O’Connell/Capital Press Potatoes are harvested at Kress Farms in American Falls, Idaho. John O’Connell/Capital Press Miss Russet, Katelyn Elizondo, hands out baked potatoes during Idaho Spud Day in Shelley. Spud hunt Idaho farmers planted 325,000 of the 1.037 million U.S. potato acres raised in 2016, and the state’s growers harvested nearly 14 billion pounds of tubers, according to recent USDA estimates. To put the numbers in per- spective, Idaho Potato Com- mission President and CEO Frank Muir explained the state’s collective pile would cover a football fi eld nearly a mile high with spuds. Muir said he wasn’t surprised when a fi rm conducting a survey for the Idaho Department of Tourism found Americans overwhelmingly associated the word “potatoes” with Ida- ho. “Idaho is known for pota- toes more than any other state is known for anything else,” Muir said. To celebrate the comple- tion of the state’s monumental potato harvest, Boyd Foster, of Ririe, and other growers organized a community cele- bration last fall in Idaho Falls. The public came for food and entertainment, and farmwork- ers and their families got free admission. The festival will take place a second time on Oct. 21. Foster also hosts a popular John O’Connell/Capital Press Garth Van Orden helps students from the Pocatello Community Charter School glean potatoes from his fi elds in Fort Hall, Idaho. The students donated the spuds to the local food bank. community harvest tradition on his farm. Each fall, he digs 6 acres of Russet Burbanks from the center of a fi eld, leav- ing potatoes on the surface. At 10 a.m. he gives the signal for a crowd that averages more than 400 to begin gleaning spuds. Some fi ll pickup trucks with potato boxes, which they deliver to friends in need. The event resembles a big Easter egg hunt. “There’s nothing left in the fi eld,” Foster said. “They do an excellent job of cleaning up.” In return, many of his guests bring homemade good- ies, such as bread, rolls and jam. For two years, Foster sought to thank his communi- ty for its support by parking a truck fi lled with potatoes at a school or business parking lot with a “free potatoes” sign. He had few takers until nine years ago, when he invited the public to come to his fi elds and pick out their own spuds. Foster believes people are more comfortable working for their food. Many elderly residents come with old-fash- ioned potato baskets, sharing stories with their grandchil- dren about helping farmers harvest potatoes by hand be- fore the advent of modern equipment. “It’s in our DNA to har- vest,” Foster said. “I think that’s why it’s enjoyed.” School tradition At the Pocatello Commu- nity School, fi rst- and sec- ond-graders spend an entire year studying every subject with a potato-centric focus. For example, they learn the life cycle of a potato plant in biology class and how pota- Known Oregon wolf packs Confirmed pack/individual range Estimated pack/individual range NOTE: Polygons represent estimated ranges for known wolf packs with radio-collared animals. 82 Portland Pendleton 197 Unnamed Heppner 5 26 OR30 Desolation 22 Mt. Emily Catherine 26 84 Harl Butte OR29/36 OR37 20 26 126 Bend Eugene 97 OREGON 20 58 Silver Lake OR25 5 101 Rogue N Keno (status unknown) 25 miles 199 Medford 5 *At least one breeding pair 395 Ontario Wolf pack population Pack/area Total Wenaha* Walla Walla* Snake River* Minam* 12 11 9 11 Mt. Emily Meacham* Rogue 8 7 6 Desolation Shamrock Catherine* 1 4 5 Source: Oregon Dept. of Fish and Wildlife (cont.) Keno Heppner Silver Lake OR30 pair Chesnimnus* Harl Butte* N. Emily OR29/36 Lone/misc. Minimum total Total 1 3 1 2 9 10 3 2 7 112 Alan Kenaga/Capital Press Harl Butte Pack is thought to consist of six adults and three wolves born this past spring WOLVES from Page 1 by the pack since July 2016. At the time, ODFW said it hoped its “incremental” re- sponse would work – and for six weeks there were no con- fi rmed attacks, called depre- dations. But ODFW confirmed at- tacks on private land Sept. 29 and Oct. 1 in which one calf was mostly consumed and another was badly bit- ten. Non-lethal deterrence methods haven’t worked, said Roblyn Brown, acting wolf program coordinator for ODFW. “Grazing season is not over and these cattle will be on public land until Oct. 31 and private land even later depending on the weather,” Brown said in a prepared statement. “As wildlife managers, we are responsible for balancing the conservation of wolves on the landscape with our obliga- tion to manage wolves so that damage to livestock is lim- ited. We need to take further action with this pack,” Brown said. The Harl Butte Pack is thought to consist of six Crowing a queen When she was a little girl, Katelyn Elizondo used to host make-believe Miss Russet pageants with her Barbie dolls. This fall, Elizondo got to live her childhood fantasy, when she won the coveted Miss Russet crown. The pag- eant is a tradition dating back generations at Shelley High School, where the mascot is also a Russet potato. Elizondo played the piano as her talent for the pageant, and her service project will involve organizing visits to the local assisted living center. “This is something I’ve dreamed of my whole life,” Elizondo said. Miss Russet is a perennial guest of honor at Idaho Spud Day, a “gala celebration of the Idaho potato” hosted on Sept. 16 by the small town. Ramaswamy: ‘Existential threat’ of nutritional insecurity is occurring today NIFA from Page 1 Minam Meacham 97 101 Chesnimnus Wenaha Shamrock Snake Walla Walla River N. Emily 395 84 Salem (As of Dec. 31, 2016) toes impact Idaho’s economy in their local civics class. The school’s curriculum also includes a communi- ty-service component. Teacher Whitney Griggs explained her classes glean potatoes from a different farm fi eld each fall and donate the bags they fi ll to the local food bank. Finding a willing farmer has never been a problem. “We try to mix it up be- cause a lot of different farmers are willing to give and partic- ipate in our service project,” Griggs said. This fall, grower Garth Van Orden invited the classes to glean one of his spud fi elds on the Fort Hall Indian Reserva- tion. Van Orden’s staff left a row of potatoes in the fi eld to expedite gleaning, an activity that’s gotten tougher as har- vesting equipment has become more effi cient. “If we’re doing our job right, it’s slim pickings,” Van Orden said. Van Orden also gave each child a Spuddy Buddy doll featuring the IPC’s mascot. “They take a pretty minus- cule amount of potatoes,” Van Orden said. “What isn’t mi- nuscule is how wonderful it is to see all of these kids out here and the energy and excitement that they bring.” For other Eastern Idaho growers, such as Merill Haney in Shelley, local high school students fi ll a critical need during potato harvest. Some of the smaller school districts in the region schedule a two- week potato harvest break, providing an opportunity for students to work harvest. “We would have a very dif- fi cult time harvesting this crop without this assistance,” said Haney, who hires about six high school students each fall. “It’s hard to fi nd enough labor supply in the area.” When the harvest break ends, Haney said most stu- dents still come after school to help. He’s employed sev- eral low-income students who have used their earnings stay afl oat fi nancially, or gone on to college. “I think (harvest) is a time to pay back both directions and help these farms help the schools with their tax dollars,” Haney said. Haney’s grown children also return home from as far away as Puerto Rico to help with harvest. adults and three wolves born this past spring. The younger wolves are estimated to be 50 to 60 pounds by now; adult wolves range between 70 to 115 pounds. In a related development, ODFW said the lethal take authorization against the Meacham Pack, in neighbor- ing Umatilla County, has ex- pired. One wolf was shot after ODFW authorized killing two wolves. The department ini- tially said the wolf killed was a non-breeding female, but examination showed it had bred this year. Perdue and even the White House, they’re putting their money where their mouth is when it comes to farmers and livestock producers.” For example, the USDA budget was protected, Ra- maswamy said. NIFA’s request for the 2017 fiscal year budget called for doubling funding for the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative competitive grants for food and agriculture, from $350 million to $700 million, he said. The Support of Agricultural Research group (SOAR) is pushing for a doubling of funding for ex- periment stations, extension, forestry programs and for the USDA Agricultural Research Service, Ramaswamy said. Ramaswamy spoke on innovations for food systems in the 21st Century. He emphasized to researchers in the audience the need to ensure farmers are profitable, which he said is a priority for NIFA. “All the greatest inventions and discoveries (re- searchers) are making that we support means nothing at all if that knowledge is not being put to practical ef- fort by our farmers and livestock producers,” he said. “Those producers are trying to make sure you and I can enjoy the fruit of their labor.” NIFA aims to reduce the ecological footprint of food and agriculture, Ramaswamy said, including $120 billion and 1 quadrillion — a 1 followed by 15 zeroes — liters of water lost each year due to food waste and loss. NIFA hopes to find ways to reduce those losses by half. A third to half of all food is lost to insects and pathogens before reaching the dinner table in develop- ing countries, and at the dinner table in the developed world, he said. He showedb pictures of half-finished meals from a recent breakfast with colleagues. Some “very simple fixes” include a “best by” expi- ration date instead of a “sell by” date, or shrink wrap that indicates when food has spoiled, Ramaswamy said. While many often speak of finding a solution by 2050, Ramaswamy said the “existential threat” of nu- tritional insecurity is occurring today, and must be considered by researchers. “Tonight, across the globe, just about 800 million people will go to bed hungry,” he said. “As a conse- quence of that hunger, we’ll have about 29,000 peo- ple globally drop dead for lack of food. In the United States, we can feed the entire world, but yet the USDA Economic Research Service says we’ve got almost 16 million households in America that are food insecure. Almost 4 million households are seriously food inse- cure.” Basic American Foods do- nated thousands of baked po- tatoes that were given away to the crowd. Families competed in a tug-of-war, with a pit of mashed potatoes at the center. Les Brinkley, a former potato warehouse worker who is now a school counselor, served as the announcer during the world championship potato picking contest — a Shelley tradition that dates back to the early 1900s, with cash prizes of up to $100 awarded to vic- tors. “It’s the only spud picking contest that I know of, so that makes it a world champion- ship,” Brinkley explained. During the Spud Day Pa- rade, Kevin Searle, with the local fresh potato shipping fa- cility GPOD of Idaho, threw potato peelers from a pota- to truck to crowds gathered along the route. Searle said GPOD often supports local school teams and clubs by furnishing them with potatoes to sell as fundraisers. “There are many fam- ily farms in this area, and they have grandfathers and great-grandfathers that were in the potato business,” Searle said. Watching the parade with her children from the tail- gate of her car, rural Shelley resident Rebecca Fielding explained most people in the community have some con- nection to the potato industry or potato harvest. “We have a feed lot where we do corn and wheat and hay, but then we also go and help the uncles with their harvest of potatoes,” she said. “All of the Fielding grandkids and cousins help, and they even fl y some in from Missouri to help with harvest, and it’s the same way with the com- munity. Everybody just fl ocks to their farms and everybody helps get the harvest done.” What’s next for Ramaswamy? By MATTHEW WEAVER Capital Press MOSCOW, Idaho – Son- ny Ramaswamy was ap- pointed by President Barack Obama to a six-year term as director of the National Insti- tute of Food and Agriculture in 2012. His term is up next year. An additional term is possi- ble, according to NIFA. What’s next for him? “I don’t know,” he told the Capital Press after his presen- tation on innovations in food systems Oct. 6 at the Uni- versity of Idaho in Moscow. “My heart lies in academia. I’d hope I’d be able to maybe go into academia or maybe a nongovernmental organiza- tion. But I don’t know yet.” Ramaswamy was dean of the College of Agricultur- al Sciences at Oregon State University when Obama ap- pointed him. That position is reopening when current Dean Dan Arp retires next June. Ramaswamy ruled out a return to OSU. “Been there, done that, how’s that?” he said with a laugh. Asked about possible re- placements in his position at NIFA, he said it’s by presi- dential appointment and not his call. “But if somebody were to ask me, I could point them in the direction of people to call,” he said. He could be reappointed, he said, noting it’s President Donald Trump’s and U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue’s prerogative to make that decision. Would he be interested if they ask? Ramaswamy declined to comment.
