The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently issued a call for public comment on an interim rule regarding changes to the Women, Infant and Children (WIC) Food Packages program, which provides supplemental foods for women with children. As part of the wide range of changes that included adding fruits and vegetables as eligible for WIC vouchers, the USDA recommended excluding fresh white potatoes from the list of allowable vegetables. More than 4,300 comments were submitted on the changes, with more than 230 specifically urging USDA to reevaluate the exclusion of white potatoes from the WIC food list. Overall the potato-specific comments were extremely favorable, touting the rich nutritional value of the potato and its main attributes as a good source of vitamin C, potassium, vitamin B6 and fiber. Nutrition on a budget was another common theme.

This week, the EPA released a fact sheet on their efforts to develop a General Permit for pesticide applications as a requirement of the Clean Water Act’s National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES). The EPA indicates they do not intend to propose permits for pesticide applications for terrestrial applications for pests on agricultural crops. It appears the EPA does not intend to extend the NPDES General Permit to land applications of pesticides in an agricultural setting. For the application of pesticides to waters of the United States that will require a permit the Agency intends to propose a minimum threshold below which a permit will note required.

The EPA clearly understands and seems to encourage comments to the General Permit proposal that would suggest broadening the final proposal to include more application activities. We fully expect comments that support expanding the scope of the General Permit to be filed with EPA. Environmental groups are very likely to go to court to try to force the NPDES permitting requirements to cover terrestrial agriculture applications.

Resolving the conflict between the Clean Water Act NPDES permitting requirements and the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) the “Label is the Law” standard will go well beyond this current effort by the EPA to develop a General Permit for applying pesticides in or over the waters of the United States. The NPC will provide comments to the EPA when the actual permitting process is published in the Federal Register. The agency intends to publish the permit requirements in the Federal Register by May 2010 and hopes to finalize the permit process by December 2011.

As a member of an ad hoc Coalition in Support of Sustained Funding for Food Aid, the National Potato Council submitted a statement for the hearing record on Fiscal Year 2011 funding to Rep. Rosa DeLauro, chair of the House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee. The twenty-nine organizations comprising the coalition are committed to maintaining the funding for America’s food aid programs to meet humanitarian needs, enhance the potential for economic growth in recipient counties, and to stimulate the U.S. economy. The coalition is disappointed by the President’s proposed “flat funding levels it the budget” for our U.S. food aid programs. Included in the statement were the following recommendations from the committee:
• Full up-front funding of Title II at the $2.5 billion authorized by law, which is consistent with the FY 2008 and 2009 appropriations levels, and should serve to help avoid the cycle of emergency supplemental appropriations for this program.
• Title I/Food for Progress levels should be restored to responsible levels so that the unique efficiencies of the program are not lost and more people can be fed.
• Increase funding available for the McGovern-Dole program, leveraging the special ability of this program to reach children and spur long-term development.

A copy of the full statement can be found by downloading the link to the right.

This week, NPC filed comments with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) suggesting that the Agency’s proposal to offer additional guidance to growers and state regulatory agencies on the regulation of spray drift be withdrawn and rewritten. EPA published the draft guidelines to clarify existing label instructions regarding drift and “to protect people, other non-target organisms, and the environment from adverse effects that may be caused by off-target pesticide drift.” Unfortunately, the draft guidance does not provide application or regulatory clarity. Instead the draft guidance attempts to override the “unreasonable adverse effects” risk standard language in the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) with as yet undefined legal terms including “no harm” and “could cause an adverse effect.” If adopted the EPA language would make the simple existence of a single droplet of an off-target compound a violation since it “could cause an adverse effect.”

FIFRA sets out a process for the scientific evaluation and registration of pesticides based on a consideration of risks and benefits. This includes an evaluation of the products tendency to produce drift and the likelihood that any drift could have “unreasonable adverse effects.” The EPA draft guidance would ignore the balanced consideration of risks and benefits in the registration process and subject applicators to a standard that makes any drift a violation if it has the potential to cause any harm even if that harm is inconsequential. NPC was joined in strong opposition to the spray drift draft guidance by many agriculture groups and CropLife America.

The NPC makes a real difference managing problems and exploiting opportunities on trade, environmental, tax, farm bill, food safety and other priority issues for the potato industry. As a national organization the NPC brings growers from all growing areas, developing consensus policies and bringing that combined political and grassroots power to bear on these issues.

The NPC will see a new set of challenges in 2010 and the involvement of the NPC will be critical if the voice of potato growers is to be heard. The leadership and strength of the NPC comes from growers getting involved. Your contribution of time and/or financial support is what ultimately makes the organization effective and influential. As a member of the NPC you are part of an organization that represents the entire potato supply chain and provides leadership, advocacy and technical expertise, protecting our needs so we can stay competitive.

Make a financial commitment to the potato industry by supporting the NPC today. Download the Grower Supporter Form and mail in your contribution to:
National Potato Council
1300 L Street, NW Suite 910
Washington, DC 20005

NPC President Roger Mix announced this week his top legislative priorities for the NPC over the next year. His priorities include addressing food safety, sustainability and climate change. “The federal government is moving toward national standards in the area of food safety, and NPC is urging legislators to adopt risk-based, commodity-specific food safety standards,” stated Mix. “Food safety must be commodity specific. Any required audits should be standardized, good across-the-board and accepted up and down the supply chain.”

Mix also wants to build on the progress to date developing the NPC’s Data Collection Project, getting buy-in from grower groups and gathering supply data so the project can be published. Another top priority for Mix is working with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and registrants to maintain crop inputs and explore new uses and active ingredients that would benefit potato production. “We have to make sure we have accurate data for EPA,” Mix indicated. “Our goal is to ensure that potato growers have the best possible products available to them. NPC’s Data Collection Project will ensure that we have the data needed by EPA to make sound, science-based decisions when analyzing data that affects our business practices.”

Roger Mix is a fourth generation potato grower with Mix Farms, a family-owned business. He brings a wealth of experience to the role of representing potato growers from all the major production areas. During 2007, Mix was named NPC’s vice president of Environmental Affairs, serving in that position until his recent selection as president. From 2005-2006 he served as the NPC’s vice president of Finance and Office Procedures. Mix will serve as president throughout 2010.

On January 29, the National Potato Council (NPC) filed comments on why potatoes should be included in the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) voucher program. The Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) is accepting comments on the interim rule to provide WIC participants with vouchers for the purchase of fruits and vegetables. The interim rule allowed the vouchers to be used on all fruits and vegetables except white potatoes. The potato industry took this opportunity to provide statistics and information on the nutrients that a potato provides in correlation to the nutrients needed by WIC participants. The comments also highlighted the scientific and logical inconsistencies of excluding white potatoes while allowing the inclusion of fruits and vegetables including other starchy vegetables that contain few if any of the nutrients needed by WIC participants. NPC utilized nutrition data collected by the U.S. Potato Board (USPB) as the basis for much of the comments. NPC provided key WIC decision makers all across the U.S. with material supporting the inclusion of white potatoes in WIC and encouraged them to contact U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to add their support. Click "download" to view the NPC's comments.