Potato Sustainability Goals Similar To McDonald’s

Sustainability is of growing importance for consumers and companies, meaning highlighting the successes in the farming community is becoming more and more important.  Chris Voigt, Executive Director of the Washington State Potato Commission said he and other members traveled back to Chicago, IL, earlier this year to meet with McDonald’s leaders to discuss sustainability, and what that looks like on today’s farm.

“As they went through kind of the list of the things that were important to McDonald's, it was reassuring," Voigt said.  "It was awesome because it almost mirrored exactly what the things were important to us as the Washington State Potato Commission.”

Many Of McDonald's Goals Are Our Goals

Voigt pointed out that the Commission is making large investments to improve sustainability.  For example, efforts to improve the potato breeding program.

“That's hugely important to McDonald's because they recognize that their suppliers need to be on the cutting edge of creating new varieties that use less water or use less fertilizer or resistant to this pest or this disease that has good yield so that they can ensure good quality and that they can store them year round to make sure that they're going to be able to make French fries 365 days a year," Voigt said.  "And so it really, it was really reassuring to see that their goals and their objectives were really the same things, or I would say 95% of them match up with the potato growers here in Washington state.”

Voigt said while this year’s meeting was a positive, he’s hopeful it will encourage more collaboration in all parts of the food supply chain.

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