Potato Board meeting attracts 400 at Presque Isle Session features awards, new officers

PRESQUE ISLE — More than 400 people attended the seventh annual Maine Potato Board meeting Wednesday in Presque Isle.

The meeting capped a daylong series of sessions on industry issues attended by state and local officials.

New officers for the potato board are Robert Bartlett of Littleton, president; Robert Blackstone of Perham, vice president; Rodney McCrum of Mars Hill, secretary; and Bruce Roope of Presque Isle, treasurer.

Normand Lajoie of Van Buren was recognized as Maine Farmer of the Year, and Andrew McGlinn was recognized as Maine’s Young Farmer of the Year.

Edwin Plissey of Orono, a state potato specialist, was presented the board’s second President’s Award for outstanding service.

John Logan, director of the organization Quality Control Board, was recognized for winning the marketing excellence award given by the National Produce Business Magazine for an original Maine potato video promotion.

David Lavway, the MPB executive director, was recognized as recipient of the National Potato Council Industry Award for work in PVY-n virus issues.

At an afternoon potato board meeting, members voted to seek legislative approval to increase from three to five the two-year terms members may sit on the board’s Executive Committee.

A four-hour public hearing was held earlier in the day with 11 members of the Legislature’s Joint Standing Committee on Agriculture hearing testimony on a proposal for mandatory inspection of Maine potatoes.

The bill drafted by Commissioner Bernard W. Shaw, was sponsored by Rep. Robert Tardy, D-Palmyra.

Maine’s potato acreage dropped from 140,000 to 79,000 acres, according to Shaw. He predicted that unless the potato industry addressed merchandising issues, it would be out of business by the year 2010.

On behalf of the Potato Board, Lavway testified in opposition to the bill, L.D. 1717, in its present form.

Lavway said growers were unhappy with the high cost and poor service of the existing Federal-State inspection program and objected to starting a new program midway through the marketing season.

Because the inspection does not guarantee acceptance of potatoes at a destination, 83 percent of those in an industry poll said they were not interested, said Lavway.

“We don’t know what the inspection service would look like, if there is going to be a state or private inspection service,” said Lavway. “To ask the industry to sign on to a mandatory inspection program before some of these things are ironed out is not reasonable. To the potato board, the inspection is a second opinion, a quality control measure to help the packer. At this point in time, the growers are not satisfied the mandatory inspection will make any difference.”