Home>Articles by: Mark Szymanski

Author: Mark Szymanski

NPC Welcomes H-2A Wage Freeze Included in FY25 Appropriations Bill

The National Potato Council welcomed today’s action by the House Appropriations Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Subcommittee to pass a Fiscal Year 2025 bill that includes language to reduce the H-2A Adverse Effect Wage Rate (AEWR) to the 2023 level and freeze that rate for two years.

The National Potato Council welcomed today’s action by the House Appropriations Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Subcommittee to pass a Fiscal Year 2025 bill that includes language to reduce the H-2A Adverse Effect Wage Rate (AEWR) to the 2023 level and freeze that rate for two years.

USDA Funds 23 ARS-State Partnership Potato Research Proposals

USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS) awarded funding for 23 research proposals totaling nearly $1.2 million. Proposals address numerous potato diseases, insect pests, and post-harvest disorders of critical concern to potato-producing […]

Potato Research Rises to Historic Level in House FY25 Ag Approps Bill

potato plantations grow in the field. vegetable rows. farming, agriculture. Landscape with agricultural land. crops

The House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee marked up and passed by voice vote the FY25 Agriculture Appropriations Bill on Tuesday night. While the full report language will be made available closer to […]

National Potato Council Statement on House Ag Committee Passage of 2024 Farm Bill

WASHINGTON – The National Potato Council released the following statement after the U.S. House Agriculture Committee favorably reported out The Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2024: “The National Potato […]

USDA to Keep the Potatoes as Vegetable, Reports Senator Collins 

Long-time potato industry champion U.S. Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine) announced this week that she received a call from USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack who told her the “USDA will officially support […]

USDA Retreats on Potato Limitations in Final School Meal Rules

On April 24, 2024, USDA released its final rule overhauling its school breakfast and lunch programs, limiting sugar and further reducing sodium levels in meals. Notably for the potato industry, […]

Bipartisan Senate Letter Calls for Potatoes to Remain Classified a Vegetable

On March 26, U.S. Senators Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) led a bipartisan group of 14 Senators in writing to U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Thomas Vilsack […]

Potato Priorities Remain Intact in FY24 Agriculture-FDA Appropriations Bill

The House and Senate last week released the Fiscal Year 2024 Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies appropriations bill text, providing $26.3 billion in discretionary funding […]

NPC Calls on Dietary Advisory Committee to Increase Vegetable Consumption Recommendations

In its latest comments to the committee working on recommendations that will form the 2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, NPC this week called on the group to consider modeling situations […]

NPC Applauds Scaled-back Final Climate Disclosure Ruling

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) yesterday scrapped a plan opposed by farm groups to mandate the tracking of greenhouse gas emissions in company supply chains, all the way down […]