DOGE Cuts Impacting NW Potato Industry

There are still many questions about the DOGE cuts put forward by the Administration, but one thing is for certain; the local potato industry is already feeling the impact.

Chris Voigt, Executive Director of the Washington state Potato Commission, said the federal cuts weren’t surgical, and it appears there wasn’t much thought behind the decisions made.  Voigt said the potato industry has lost the ability to fill some key research positions because of the DOGE cuts.

“The USDA does the initial potato breeding, that crosses potato plants, and then hands us those varieties, and we look at them. So, they're actually they produce roughly about 100-150,000 genetically different plants each year for us," Voigt explained.  "They give us those seeds, we plant them and then we try to find that needle in the haystack, and ask ‘OK, which one of those 150,000 is actually going to be the best potato for us?’ That breeder retired and we were in the process of filling that position, and then that's when the hiring freeze went into effect. And then that's when they started cutting anybody any new hires or any new promotions.”

We Can't Produce The Plants We Need

Voigt added he fears these cuts will have a long-term impact on the potato industry across the country.  He pointed out that typically, nine researchers would be working at the ARS breeding facility in Aberdeen, ID.  That number is now down to three, meaning that office is running bar bones right now.

“Thankfully the University of Idaho has stepped up to help us on continuing the breeding program, but is for the temporary spot. And so we're in a real fix; we'll get through this growing season but at a greatly reduced capacity.  Instead of being able to produce 150,000 new plants each year that we need to take a look at, we're going to be down to about 60,000 and next year it'll be 0 if we can't fill some of these positions," Voigt said.  "So it's really critical to the future of us coming up with new varieties that we can be competitive and keep our food cost low and keep our input cost low, it really depends on this breeding program.”

Voigt said he understands the effort to cut waste and make the federal government more efficient, but he fears the Administration has thrown the baby out with the bathwater.

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