Aug 7, 2016EPA staff to tour potato fields
The National Potato Council‘s Policy Makers and Regulators Field Tour is set for Aug. 16-18. The tour offers EPA staff the opportunity to see potato production, discuss pesticide utilization, and interact with farmers.
The 2016 tour will take place in various locations surrounding Park Rapids, Minnesota. A dozen staff from EPA’s Office of Pesticide Programs, including members of the divisions that handle product registrations and reviews, will make visits to the local farms of Pete Ewing and R.D. Offutt Farm Operations, and Sand Plain Research Farm at Becker, Minnesota, which is affiliated with the University of Minnesota’s College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences and the Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station.
Participants will tour fresh potato packing plants, witness harvest activity, experience an aerial application demonstration, learn about pollinator habitat partnerships, discuss the use of cover crops, receive detailed insight on day-to-day potato production activities and learn more about university field plot trials to maximize nitrogen efficiency.
