USDA spends $2.5 million attempting to create ‘superior’ new varieties of potato – IOTW Report

USDA spends $2.5 million attempting to create ‘superior’ new varieties of potato

Just The News:

There are 200 varieties of potato in the U.S.

The Golden Horseshoe is a weekly designation from Just the News intended to highlight egregious examples of wasteful taxpayer spending by the government. The award is named for the horseshoe-shaped toilet seats for military airplanes that cost the Pentagon a whopping $640 each back in the 1980s. 

This week, our award is going to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) for spending $2.5 million taxpayer dollars on developing even more varieties of potato than are already available.

According to the grant: “The Potato Research program encourages applicants to establish and work through regional, multi-location, research breeding networks to address priority national or regional science needs of the potato industry. By bringing together expertise across multiple university, federal agency, and industry organizations and states, the Potato Research program seeks to enhance the effectiveness of limited state, federal, and industry resources and accelerate the development of superior varieties that produce benefits to the potato industry.” more here

21 Comments on USDA spends $2.5 million attempting to create ‘superior’ new varieties of potato

  1. What we really need is a new variety of politician….you know, one that actually loves America and the freedoms provided under the U.S. Constitution AND is willing to fight for it?!?!

    Forget your stupid spud research.

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  2. …I work in a Federally regulated food plant with a mandatory on-site USDA presence. They have a large office space all ro themselves.

    …and from what I’VE seen, its full of potatoes that sure THINK they’re superior…;)

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  3. Leave our food alone! Does anyone remember what a “Real” tomato used to taste like before they “improved” them by making them pretty red, pretty awful and tastless with their GM BS?
    My mouth waters just thinking about them.

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  4. This is a good step, but the Potato Institute needs to make potatoes sexy so people won’t be ashamed of eating them.

    They could stage an annual Miss Potato USA Beauty Pageant. She could travel all over the country telling people how much sex appeal taters have, which of course, is a lot.

    And potatoes could use some laughter too. How about a Groucho Marx mask with glasses, a big mustache, and a huge red potato for a nose? That would be so funny. Available at the Potato Institute gift shop or through on-line ordering at https://PITuberTown.com.

    And, for the sexual deviants, they could breed slender and long potatoes that, before eating, can be used as a…ah, never mind.

    The Potato Institute should have members only promotions and gifts, such as discounts on 75-lb bags of russets, T-shirts that say “I AM POTATO – King of Tubers”. New members get a pin that proclaims to the entire world that they are a proud member of the “Tater Slave” fraternity.

    The Potato Institute could have sensitively trained counselors at their HW who would answer calls from persons suffering from potato withdrawals or those that haven’t had their potato fix for a couple of days and are madly climbing the walls and screaming randomly.

    Last but not least, the PI could sponsor a CW band to tour the country. The Tater Brothers. They would tout potatoes in their songs. Perhaps they could do covers of “Mashed Potatoes”, “Doctor My Eyes”. Or new songs like “Take Me Home, Yukon Gold”.

    Just suggestions from one Potato Head to other “Taters” out there.

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