b"Senator Kevin CramersLegislativeStaff Visits The ValleyDrew Lingle and Micah Chambers, partof Senator Kevin Cramers D.C. legisla-tive staff made a stop in the Valley andvisitedHoversonFarmsinLarimore,NorthDakotaonAugust26th.Theywanted to tour a potato farm and hearabout issues that are important to potatogrowers in the Red River Valley.Carl Hoverson told them a little of hisbackroundandhowhegotintothepotato industry and then started talkingabout processing varieties and how weneed to do a better job of funding col-lege research programs like the program MicahChambers,(leftfront)andDrewLingle,(leftback),partofSenatorKevin Cramer of North Dakotas legislative team, visit with NPPGA PresidentatNorthDakotaStateUniversity.He Donavon Johnson, (right back) and Carl Hoverson of Hoverson Farms, (frontspoke on how it is imperative that they right) on many issues in the potato industry.get more funding so that they can con-tinue to develop new varieties and can Donavan stated. potatoesthatweredelicious.Hethencontinue their potato research that is so gaveatourofhisstoragefacilitiestovitallyimportanttonotonlyNorth TheWHIP+programwastouchedon Micah and Drew.Dakota,butthepotatoindustryasa with the push to give more attention towhole. potatoes within the program. The quali- Drew Lingle said, It was great to be inty loss payout keeps getting pushed back North Dakota and see our potato grow-I think it is important to recognize that due to the workload of all the CARES ers'operations.SenatorCrameralwaysNDSU has a very strong breeding pro- (Covid related) programs. encourages his staff to go into the field,gram,NPPGA PresidentDonavon learn first hand how the policy issues weJohnson,says,thepotatoindustry The group also talked on the H2-A Visa handle affect the people we serve, andresearch that comes out of that program program. If there is anything that could see how we can be helpful, particularlyis invaluable. be done to simplify this program as it is as we recover from COVID-19 and lookvery important to all farmers around the fornewmarketsandprocessorsforManysubjectsweretoucheduponby United States to be able to bring these NorthDakotaspotatoes.ThankstoCarl and Donavon involving the potato folks in to work. NorthernPlainsPotatoGrowersindustryincludingCFAPandthebil- AssociationandHoversonFarmsforlions of dollars that are sitting in that Discussionalsocenteredonvarious hosting us.program just waiting to be made avail- tradeissuesregardingpotatoimportsable to the growers. One improvement from the EU and Canada and exports to Overallthediscussionwasverygoodto CFAP would be to extend the April Mexico.andhopefullyMicahandDrewcan15th qualifying date to the fiscal or cal- bring back some valuable information toendar year end.Also if they could sim- AftertheroundtablediscussionCarl Senator Cramer.plify the program to make it easier to servedeveryonebakedpotatoesfreshunderstandthatwouldhelpalso, out of the field and french fries and chip18 POTATO GROWER SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2020"