Senator Daines Signs Bipartisan Letter to Protect Montana’s Potato Crops

• July 17, 2024

U.S. Senator Steve Daines joined a bipartisan group of senators urging the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to increase efforts in protecting crops from the potato wart disease.

"If potato wart should enter the United States, our farmers and the communities they support will be economically devastated," the senators wrote in a letter. "Given that twenty percent of our potato crop-valued at over $2 billion-is exported, we cannot allow introduction of a disease that would shut off access to international markets, and also curtail domestic production and sales."

Potato wart is a highly destructive disease that reduces crop yields and makes potatoes unmarketable. There is currently no treatment available to remove it from contaminated farmland. Senator Daines urged the USDA to take the following actions to protect crops from the potato wart:

• Restrict bulk shipments into the United States to smaller-size packages
• Limit large retail shipments and ensure consumers know they are for consumption rather than cultivation
• Control the waste generated by processing facilities

Senator Daines joined Senators Crapo (R-Idaho), Wyden (D- Ore.), Boozman (R-Ark.), Collins (R-Mich.), Cramer (R-N.D.), Hoeven (R- N.D.),Ricketts (R-Neb.), Risch (R-Idaho), Bennett (D-Colo.), Cantwell (D-Wash.), Fetterman (D-Pa.), Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), King (I-Maine), Merkley (D-Ore.), Murray (D-Wash.), Stabenow (D-Mich.) and Tester (D-Mont) in signing the letter.

Read the full letter here.