Kimberly, Idaho, USA
March 14, 2014

University of Idaho Extension potato specialist Nora Olsen of Kimberly leads the Potato Association of America, the group’s sixth president with UI ties.

The association includes representatives of more than 30 nations around the world. Her term is notable twice over: she was elected during the association’s centennial year and she is the first woman to serve as its president.

“We are really a world-wide organization, even though the majority of our membership is in North America,” she said. The group has a sister organization, the European Association of Potato Research which she will address later this year.

Potato production tends to follow population. China is the world’s leading producer. India’s another major producer. In those countries, however, potato production typically occurs in quarter- or half-acre family plots. In Idaho and acrossNorth America, potato farms can span thousands of acres.

Markets vary widely, too. “We are a global market. We are growing potatoes to export and feed the world,” she said.

The Potato Association of America represents a wide spectrum of production, from scientists to potato farmers, she noted.

“We encompass all of the people who want to be part of this strong scientific exchange,” Olsen said. “That’s what’s remarkable about the organization. It’s not just academia, it’s industry people. We have the unique ability to bridge industry and academia together to talk about the science and where we need to go in the future.”

As the latest in a UI leadership line that stretches back nearly half a century, Olsen was preceded by at least five University of Idaho potato researchers,beginning with Walter Sparks in 1965. Others included Dennis Corsini, Joe Guenthner, Stephen Love and Phil Nolte, who served most recently in 2010.

The association is focusing on the future in several ways, she noted. Last year it converted to electronic voting. “We are updating the website, we touched on Facebook and Twitter. We are evolving,” she said.

It won’t take another century for the next woman president, either. Loretta Mikitzel, a potato specialist for New Brunswick’s Potato Development Centre, serves as the group’s vice president, which puts her in line to become president in 2015.

Olsen joined the UI faculty in 1998 after completing her doctorate in horticulture at Washington State University.

Her research focuses mostly on maintaining quality for both fresh pack potatoessold in grocery stores and for potatoes used by processors to make fries and other products. Olsen spends time in the field and at the Kimberly Research and Extension Center’s potato storage research facility.

In 2011, Phil Nolte, a UI Extension potato disease specialist at Idaho Falls and past association president, received a potato with zebra chip symptoms. Olsen did the ground work, examining the field. They became the first researchers to confirm that zebra chip had arrived in Idaho.

The bacterial disease is carried by tiny cicada-like insects, potato psyllids. Until Nolte and Olsen’s work, scientists believed the Northwest was free of the pests. Subsequent checks found the insects in Washington and Oregon, too.

The discovery worried potato producers and processors. Although the bacterial disease presents no health threat, it does undermine infected spuds’ value by creating dark bands in fried potatoes, hence the name zebra chip.

Much of her work focuses on keeping potatoes fresh and healthy in storages by studying how to keep sprouting to a minimum and to combat microbes that cause spoilage.

Olsen noted that next year’s president will be Andy Jensen, research director for the Idaho, Washington and Oregon potato commissions. The association’s annual meeting is planned in Spokane July 27-31.
 

Website: http://www.uidaho.edu

Published: March 14, 2014