Climate Change, Booming Potato Chip Market Threaten Idaho Potato Harvest
As Idaho prepares to embrace its potato state stereotype by dropping a giant spud in front of the Statehouse on New Year's Eve, Gem State farmers are expressing serious concern about the fate of Idaho potato crops in 2016.
According to the Idaho Department of Agriculture, more than 131 million units of potatoes were harvested across 316,000 acres of Idaho farmland during 2013. That was more than 33 percent of all of the potatoes harvested in the United States. The crop is grown almost entirely in the southern portion of the state in the Snake River Plain. Each year's crop is valued between $550 million and $700 million. Full story from Boise Weekly.
