Echo Press: Northern Plains potato industry works to keep the economy in shape

The potato trucks rumbling down the roads of North Dakota and western Minnesota during the September harvest season carry a commodity that contributes significantly to the health of the northern Plains economy.

The region's potato production — the third largest in the United States — is valued at $500 million, employs 5,600 full-time equivalent workers and makes up 17% of the agriculture and food processing industry, according to Northland Potato Growers Association’s website.

Potatoes have long been a staple in northern Plains fields — in 1943, North Dakota farmers planted a record 191,000 acres — but the industry has greatly evolved and changed as technology, the advent of irrigation and improved varieties have resulted in the production of more hundredweight on fewer acres.

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