Apr 1, 2024Letter emphasizes importance of keeping potatoes classified as a vegetable
A bipartisan group of 14 U.S. senators penned a letter to government leaders opposing attempts to reclassify potatoes as a grain instead of a vegetable.
The 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans are currently being written, with potato classification a focus of industry attention. Attendees at the National Potato Council’s Washington Summit, held Feb. 25-March 1, initiated support for the letter, sent USDA Secretary Thomas Vilsack and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra.
A similar bipartisan House letter is expected to be released this week, according to a statement from the NPC.
“Since the inception of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), it has classified potatoes correctly as a vegetable,” the letter (.pdf) read. “There is no debate about the physical characteristics of the potato and its horticultural scientific classification. Unlike grains, white potatoes are strong contributors of potassium, calcium, vitamin C, vitamin B6, and fiber.”
The letter, which called for an update on the dietary guidelines process, said a classification change would “immediately confuse consumers, retailers, restaurant operators, growers, and the entire supply chain.”
“We’re grateful for this bipartisan group of senators have united behind a common message of keeping America’s number one vegetable classified as a vegetable,” Bob Mattive, NPC president and a Colorado potato grower, said in the statement. “Each update of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans has far-ranging implications throughout federal, state, and local nutrition programs. We are calling on USDA and HHS to reject any effort by the DGA committee to ignore long-standing nutritional and horticultural science by reclassifying potatoes as a grain or suggesting that potatoes are interchangeable with non-vegetables.”
NPC CEO Kam Quarles outlined consequences of potential reclassification to Spudman in April 2023. If reclassified, potatoes would no longer be considered a specialty crop and therefore ineligible for programs such as the USDA’s Specialty Crop Research Initiative and Specialty Crop Block Grant Program as well as farm bill initiatives, Quarles said.
“All of a sudden we would be bounced out of those programs,” he said. “The cascading negative effects of this are really far-reaching.”
