-Calvin Glaspie
All eyes were on Fredericton New Brunswick this week as it hosted the Potato Association of America’s (PAA) 93rd annual meeting. I was able to attend this event along with other MSU researchers from different disciplines including my major advisor, Dr. Wesley Everman, from weed science, Dr. David Douches, Nicole Nichol, and Joe Coombs from plant breeding, Dr. Willie Kirk from plant pathology, Loren Wernette a masters student in Entomology and the Michigan spud titan himself, Chris Long. Topics at the meeting spanned all material concerning production, management and the future of the potato in not just the US but the world. The meeting began Monday morning (10th of August) with the plant protection symposium which offered great insights into alternative control of pests in potatoes. Towards the end of the day in the Plant Protection session, I was able to present my work on “Tolerance of potato mini-tubers to PRE and POST herbicide applications”. The presentation I felt in whole went very well and it sparked some interesting conversations with different individuals after my talk. Wednesday, we had the opportunity to visit a few different locations in the Fredericton area, including a visit to Jolly Farmer, the Potato World museum, a McCain research farm and the Covered Bridge Potato Chip Company. Jolly Farmer’s company struck our tour group with awe because of its industrialized greenhouse operation focused on the production of young seedling ornamental products to supply retail home and garden stores. To say the least, the company had a very proficient system to produce and manage their greenhouse with robotics to assist in production of plants to their utilization of wood waste products to heat their facility. Potato World was a joyful place to visit allowing the group to view artifacts of the potatoes past and enjoy a wonderful potato-e lunch. The McCain research farm tour offered us the opportunity to view their research plots and learn about topics important to the company. Lastly, at the Covered Bridge Potato Chip Company we were able to view their operation as they prepared a batch of amazingly delicious sweet potato chips for us to sample. Thursday was the last day of the meeting and ended at night with the awards banquet where Nicole and I were awarded3rd and 2nd place, respectively, for the Frank L. Haynes graduate student research competition. Reflecting on the meeting as a whole, I enjoyed it and my time spent in Canada for the insight I gained about potato production in the Americas and current research on it from different disciplines. I did however leave the meeting with a heavy sadness in my heart…I didn’t get to see a moose.
