National Potato Commission hosts Oregon farm tour for US EPA regulators

During the week of Aug. 23, the National Potato Council (NPC) led a delegation of five U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) employees in a crop tour of the Columbia Basin growing area in Oregon.

By visiting potato fields, packing sheds, research centers, processors, and other potato- and agricultural-related sites, NPC's annual tour helps EPA staff gain a better understanding of how the agency's policy decisions impact potato production and the actions taken by growers to be good stewards of the environment.

The four-day tour, which was hosted by the Oregon Potato Commission, focused largely on the sustainable approach taken by the agriculture community to water issues in the Columbia Basin.

The EPA staffers also toured:
 

• the Oregon State University Hermiston Agriculture Research and Experiment Center in Hermiston,
• the BudRich Potato packing shed, Shearer's chip processing plant,
• Stahl Hutterian Brethren Farms,
• Threemile Canyon Farms,
• Portland General Electric's McCarty Coal Fired Power Plant,
• Sage Interpretive Center,
• Columbia Basin Onion,
• Amstad Farms,
• Eagle Ranch,
• Walchli Farms, and
• the McNary Dam.

This year’s EPA crop tour, which is an example of NPC's commitment to EPA's Pesticide Environmental Stewardship Program, would not have been possible without the generous support of the Oregon Potato Commission, its members, and the area growers and companies who hosted the tour.