News on Potato Varieties and Seed from Washington DC

People rarely think of Washington when talking about potatoes. Yet much of what happens in the fields— from fertilizer prices to seed genetics— is shaped, directly or indirectly, by decisions made in the U.S. capital.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is extending deregulation to J.R. Simplot Company’s (Simplot) potato variety developed using genetic engineering, designated as Snowden Z6 (Z6 potato).