News from the Beltway
I’ve just returned from the National Potato Council’s (NPC) Potato D.C. Fly-In (photo galleries from the Fly-In can be viewed at Spudman.com). I’ve come to dread my time spent in airports and airplane travel, but enjoy time spent with growers and industry representatives at these meetings and the perceptive analyses and informed opinions from members of Congress and the Washington press corps of the issues facing agriculture. Their views are priceless.
The day spent on Capitol Hill visiting legislators is one of the more important and rewarding jobs a person can perform for the nation’s potato industry. I’ve said it before and I’ll repeat myself again: If you can afford to come to a future Fly-In, it’s an investment you won’t regret taking.
North Carolina may be better known for tobacco and college basketball but there’s a group of potato growers in the Tarheel State that have carved out a niche market in the potato industry for themselves.
Last June I had the good fortune to spend a day with Reuben James and his son, Eric James, just before they were scheduled to begin the 2014 harvest. Their farm is located just outside of Elizabeth City, site of the nation’s largest U.S. Coast Guard air station and the North Carolina potato festival.
The James family has been a mainstay in Pasquotank Country for at least four generations and the James name is well known within North Carolina’s agricultural industry as well as in the national potato industry. Read all about the farm on Page ??
There’s food for thought in this month’s Growing Ahead feature. I sat down with Phil Nolte and Juliet Marshall for a discussion on how changing weather patterns could impact future cultural and agricultural practices for farmers.
Whether you believe that climate change is caused by human activities or is driven by natural forces, there is overwhelming statistical evidence that CO2 levels and global average temperatures are both increasing. In some regions there’s a silver lining to the current warming trends but where there’s action, there’s also a reaction. Nolte and Marshall parse out the good news from the bad news for our readers on Page 20.
