KENAI, Alaska -- Certified seed potato production in Alaska is facing uncertainty, which has local growers worried about future access to clean spuds.
The Peninsula Clarion reports this year's legislative session brought one time increment funding approval for Plant Materials Center's Potato Program which runs under the Alaska Division of Agriculture. The program will require legislative action to continue next year.
The Materials Center is the only place in the state that grows first-year seed potatoes, or Generation Zero potatoes. Local growers purchase the spuds and cultivate the crop for commercial production.
An official working with the program, Janice Chumley, says having to import potatoes from elsewhere could bring in diseases.
Chumley says people from around the globe purchase Alaska's seed potatoes because they know they are getting clean spuds.
Note: This article has been corrected to reflect that legislative, not congressional, action will be required to continue the program next year.