National Potato Council President Ted Tschirky says growers remain optimistic despite challenges in agriculture, noting that the Potato Expo provides a forum to discuss production, labor, and financial strategies. “Yeah, like potato growers or farmers in general are always optimistic about the years to come,” said Tshirky. “As I jokingly told a friend of mine, I had two good years: 1996 and next year. So that’s great to see the optimism of everybody.” Tschirky also highlighted the importance of advocacy at the federal level, especially for crop-specific funding. “It’s always changing, especially with this current administration, the millions of dollars that they give for the farm programs that sort of left out specialty crops or potatoes, we’re trying to navigate how we can get some of that funding into our growers’ pockets.”
