This column appears in the December 2020 issue of Potato Grower.
When we launched Potato LEAF at January’s Potato Expo, the outlook for 2020 couldn’t have been brighter. Sales were strong, consumer demand was up, trade agreements with vital export markets were being signed. Yet as optimistically as the year began for our industry and our country, it unraveled a few months later as the world locked down to combat the most devastating pandemic in a century.
Potato LEAF (or as it’s formally called, the Potato Leadership, Education and Advancement Foundation) could have easily withered in the field. After all, when we announced the new industry-supported nonprofit organization dedicated to growing future leaders, we set an ambitious 2020 fundraising goal of $2 million.
That’s right. Two. Million. Dollars. In a year when demand dried up and growers were donating potatoes by the truckload to food banks, we were asking the industry to pony up cash for an abstract mission like “leadership.”
Even so, as I write this in early October, I am pleased and humbled to report that we have already reached an incredible $1.85 million of that $2 million goal.
I want to thank the more than 70 individual growers as well as all the businesses, allied partners, and state and national potato organizations who have donated during Potato LEAF’s inaugural year, thereby ensuring the foundation will continue to meet its mission for years to come. The resiliency and forward-looking nature of our industry have never been more apparent.
While much of this year has been challenging, Potato LEAF’s signature program—the Potato Industry Leadership Institute—benefited from fortuitous timing. A few weeks before the pandemic shut down D.C. and the rest of the country, the class of 2020 came together in late February to train 24 outstanding potato growers and industry representatives for eight days of leadership and professional development.
This year’s class kicked off in Detroit, Mich., where the class received an overview of the local and national potato industry, including some of the challenges and issues beyond the production sector.
Attendees then flew to Washington, D.C., and heard from public policy and communication experts speaking at NPC’s 2020 Potato D.C. Fly-In. While in Washington, they were immersed in the legislative and regulatory priorities of the U.S. potato industry and practiced how to effectively deliver key messages to Congress. The program finished with a day of lobbying visits to offices on Capitol Hill to meet with members of Congress and advocate for industry priorities.
Trying to predict what February 2021 will look like is bit of a tossup, but we hope we will be able to bring together the institute’s class of 2021 in California and D.C. for yet another round of leadership training.
Another leg of the Potato LEAF stool is the graduate scholarship program. As students returned to college in the fall, we were pleased to announce that Jeewan Pandey, a third-year graduate student at Texas A&M University’s Department of Horticultural Sciences, was the recipient of our 2020-21 academic scholarship. The $10,000 scholarship award is provided annually to one graduate student with a strong interest in research that can directly benefit the U.S. potato industry.
As a Ph.D. candidate and graduate research and teaching assistant, Jeewan’s research involves the application of DNA-based markers in potato breeding to speed up the development of new varieties that would require fewer pesticide applications. He is also conducting genetic diversity studies and genome-wide association studies with the final goal of accelerating selection using genomics-enabled approaches.
Potato LEAF was created to ensure the long-term health of the U.S. potato industry by investing in its future leaders. We were thrilled to support Jeewan’s educational and research goals that will advance our collective knowledge and set us on the path for a better, more productive tomorrow.
Before we close the books on a tumultuous 2020, I’d like to remind you there are two ways you can support Potato LEAF and the future leaders of our industry. First, you can make a tax-deductible donation as an individual and/or business at www.pleaf.org.
Second, you can make Potato LEAF your charity of choice on AmazonSmile. Then, when your family or business makes an eligible purchase through AmazonSmile, Amazon will automatically donate 0.5 percent of the purchases to the foundation—with no fees and no extra cost to you. Visit smile.amazon.com and type in “Potato Leadership Education and Advancement Foundation” into the search bar to register Potato LEAF as your designated charity. Remember to always start your Amazon shopping at smile.amazon.com for your eligible purchases to count.
As a proud lifelong member of and long-time advocate for, the U.S. potato industry, I know firsthand the importance of developing the leaders of tomorrow. If our family farms are going to survive and thrive over the next few decades, we’re going to need growers on the state and national level to step up and advocate on the industry’s behalf. I’m certain that the invaluable training and educational opportunities provided to younger growers and industry partners by Potato LEAF will continue to reap dividends for years.