Big Potato
June 23, 2022 11:01 AM Subscribe
Meet Bryan Wada, third generation potato farmer, hailing from southeastern Idaho. He learned to love the soil from his grandfather and father. As an immigrant from Japan, Frank started his family and farm along the California coastline until the tragic events of Pearl Harbor. Japanese-American citizens were forced away from the coast by the attack. The Wadas relocated to southeastern Idaho in 1943. The family’s business has grown there, from a 100-acre sharecropper farm to a 30,000-acre business that grows 450 million pounds of potatoes each year.
And now for the potato spice inside:
December 16, 2015, BOISE, Idaho (CN) - A federal judge approved a $25 million settlement that completes one chapter of a five-year long antitrust battle over the nation's potato market. The lawsuit claims the defendants conspired to inflate the price of potatoes "in classic cartel behavior," that the cartel used physical and nonphysical intimidation to get independent growers to join, that it used high-tech methods of surveillance and physical "flyovers" to monitor members, and that the successful campaign led to an 80 percent control of the market.
Idaho grower Albert Wada, of Wada Farms Group, allegedly spearheaded the campaign, founding the United Fresh Potato Growers of Idaho in 2004, later renaming it the United Potato Growers of Idaho.
Potato growers' defense: Under a 1922 law known as the Capper-Volstead Act, agricultural producers are allowed to band together to more efficiently market their products. And the potato folks clearly think they're on the right side of the law.
In a statement, UPGA told NPR: "United Potato Grower's goal has been to help growers provide quality potatoes at reasonable prices to American consumers. We have always acted openly and within the bounds of the law. We are confident in our legal position and look forward to a favorable outcome in court."
But in recent years, the Justice Department has been scrutinizing just how far such antitrust exemptions should apply to large modern agricultural operations.
In related news: Justice Department cracks down on Big Mushroom
And now for the potato spice inside:
December 16, 2015, BOISE, Idaho (CN) - A federal judge approved a $25 million settlement that completes one chapter of a five-year long antitrust battle over the nation's potato market. The lawsuit claims the defendants conspired to inflate the price of potatoes "in classic cartel behavior," that the cartel used physical and nonphysical intimidation to get independent growers to join, that it used high-tech methods of surveillance and physical "flyovers" to monitor members, and that the successful campaign led to an 80 percent control of the market.
Idaho grower Albert Wada, of Wada Farms Group, allegedly spearheaded the campaign, founding the United Fresh Potato Growers of Idaho in 2004, later renaming it the United Potato Growers of Idaho.
Potato growers' defense: Under a 1922 law known as the Capper-Volstead Act, agricultural producers are allowed to band together to more efficiently market their products. And the potato folks clearly think they're on the right side of the law.
In a statement, UPGA told NPR: "United Potato Grower's goal has been to help growers provide quality potatoes at reasonable prices to American consumers. We have always acted openly and within the bounds of the law. We are confident in our legal position and look forward to a favorable outcome in court."
But in recent years, the Justice Department has been scrutinizing just how far such antitrust exemptions should apply to large modern agricultural operations.
In related news: Justice Department cracks down on Big Mushroom
« Older In a word? Pleasure. Like my pleasure in other... | Utah's greatest export and potentially its next... Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by Comet Bug at 8:02 PM on June 23, 2022 [1 favorite]