Potato Disease Prompts Quarantine
Pastor Dale Morgan
Sep 7, 2:59 PM EDT
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Potato Disease Prompts Quarantine*
POCATELLO, Idaho (AP) -- Federal and state regulators, trying to limit
the spread of a potato root-eating pest, have restricted the handling
and movement of potatoes and farm machinery in a 3,500-acre area in
southeastern Idaho.
The microscopic worm, called the potato cyst nematode, feeds at the
roots of potato plants and can reduce crop production by 80 percent.
Officials say the pest is not harmful to humans and doesn't have any
effect on the potatoes themselves.
The restrictions imposed last week involve 35 potato growers and 141
potato fields.
"At the very least, we hope to be able to assure our trade partners
Idaho is free of potato cyst nematode. This is one of those steps,"
Wayne Hoffman, spokesman for the state Department of Agriculture, told
the Idaho State Journal.
After the initial discovery of the pest in April, Japan banned all fresh
U.S. potato imports, and Canada and Mexico banned all fresh potato
imports from Idaho.
Idaho is the nation's largest potato producer, growing about one-third
of all the potatoes in the United States. Last year, the state produced
12.5 billion pounds of potatoes worth about $700 million to farmers.
Hoffman said farmers in the restricted area whose fields are inspected
and declared nematode free will have green stamps affixed to their
potatoes, which then can be moved without restrictions.
Farmers who do not allow their fields to be checked will have red stamps
placed on their shipments. Those potatoes, Hoffman said, can only be
processed at facilities that can safely handle dirt and water washed
from those potatoes that might contain the nematode.
Hoffman said no potatoes are being grown in fields where nematodes have
been discovered.