Meet Chris Voigt Executive Director Washington State Potato Commission

Washington grows more than 10 billion pounds of potatoes each year—feeding millions, supporting thousands of jobs, and fueling a $7.4 billion industry. But how exactly does it all happen?

In this episode, we go behind the scenes with Chris Voigt, Executive Director of the Washington State Potato Commission, to uncover the story of one of the state’s most iconic crops. From the nutrient-rich volcanic soil of the Columbia Basin to cutting-edge irrigation and logistics, Washington’s potato production is a masterclass in scale, efficiency, and innovation.

But there’s more to this episode than farming techniques. Chris shares the surprising political challenges potato growers face, including how USDA nutrition policy once left spuds off the school lunch list—and why that needed to change. We explore how potatoes have become a frontline issue in the fight for fair agricultural representation and smarter food policy.

Along the way, you’ll hear fascinating facts, unexpected origin stories, and even a few hot takes on who really serves the best fries in America.

Whether you’re a food lover, a fan of Washington State, or just someone curious about how agriculture powers our lives, this episode offers a fresh look at a humble crop with a massive footprint.

Chris Voigt Washington Potato Commission Episode Transcript

Scott Cowan [00:00:04]:

Hello, friends, and welcome to the Exploring Washington State podcast. My name is Scott Cowan, and I’m the host of the show. Each episode, I have a conversation with an interesting guest who is living in or from Washington State. These are casual conversations with real and interesting people. I think you’re gonna like the show. So let’s jump right in with today’s guest. So I’m sitting here this afternoon with Chris Voigt. Chris is the executive director of the Washington Potato Commission.

Scott Cowan [00:00:31]:

So, Chris, welcome.

Chris Voigt [00:00:34]:

Hey. Thanks for having me, Scott. Looking forward to our little, talk and conversation here.

Scott Cowan [00:00:38]:

You were introduced to me by a previous guest about on the on the Cascade Bicycling Club, and they interviewed you for their blog and about the STP. And so we’re gonna talk we’re gonna talk bicycling for a second, but also the this fry truck that you guys have. I’ve got lots of I got a lot of potato questions for you. But before we go down that, why don’t you give us a little bit of backstory? How did so you’re in the Moses Lake area. How did you end up with the Washington State Potato Commission and ultimately then in in Moses Lake?

Chris Voigt [00:01:13]:

Oh, boy. We got we gotta go way back. So, started out in high school really or or just growing up. I was actually raised in Oregon, in kind of a smaller town, rural town, little town called Newberg, Oregon. It’s kind of the heart of wine country now in Oregon, kind of the top end of the Willamette Valley. I lived in town, but all of my friends were farm kids. Okay. And so just kinda hung out with them and they got me involved in FFA, Future Farmers America.

Chris Voigt [00:01:40]:

All those I don’t know if you ever seen those kids walking around. I got these I

Scott Cowan [00:01:43]:

had them in my school.

Chris Voigt [00:01:44]:

Yeah. They you get these corduroy blue jackets and black pants. So well, that was me. They got me started in it. And for whatever reason, it just took. I mean, I just really fell in love with the people. I fell in love with agriculture. I thought, you know, everybody’s gotta eat, so there’s always gonna be some type of career ahead of you.

Chris Voigt [00:02:02]:

Wonderful leadership training and, really kind of got heavily involved in it. It was finally, I was elected a state FFA, president in Oregon. So I had to actually postpone high school for a year, kinda travel around the state and go into every FFA chapter doing all sorts of kind of motivational presentations and and educational sessions. So what and then

Scott Cowan [00:02:23]:

They made you that role actually required so much of you. Because I always think of FFA as a high school thing, not not Yeah. So the fact that you took a year off to to fulfill the duties of the office is really not what I would have expected.

Chris Voigt [00:02:38]:

Yeah. And you and you don’t get paid for it. It’s it’s really just kind of volunteered, and I think it was kinda painted back then. You know, it’s kind of an honor to be able to do that. But, you know, I look back on it now, and I really was paid in the way of just life experience. You know, we would stay with host families wherever we went. So, you know, I probably ended up staying with, you know, 90 different families, hundred different families throughout the year. And what an amazing glimpse at Americana.

Chris Voigt [00:03:09]:

I mean, from you saw the whole spectrum. Mhmm. I remember the I remember the first family I stayed with. I think they were squatters. They, picked up, an old homestead, and I don’t know if they were really I’m assuming probably they were allowed to live there, but it literally was like an old abandoned home from the out on the desert in Central Oregon that was probably, you know, built in the late eighteen hundreds. Wow. And there was no electricity, no running water, and just a and I gotta say that, I mean, you know, they were poor. Mom drove into town 25 miles away to work at the convenience store, you know, making Jojo potatoes and frying chicken.

Chris Voigt [00:04:00]:

Dad, kinda set up a little saw in in the back of the house outside, get a little lean to where he was making survey stakes. Like, literally, you know, just a pointed piece of wood that surveyors would poke in the ground to to mark areas. And I gotta tell you, Scott, man, I get emotional just thinking about it. It was the most loving family I’ve ever come across. I mean, they had next to nothing but happy, And we were sitting around and telling stories and laughing. And it was just an amazing experience that I had at 18 year olds to see this family who really, literally living off of nothing and out in the middle of nowhere, just happy and loving family. It was great to see that. And then I contrast that with another family I stayed with that was incredibly rich.

Chris Voigt [00:04:58]:

And they had this beautiful home on this, river, a big kind of estate. I had my own guest house that I stayed in when I was with them. And it just was like a really dysfunctional family. And it was and then I saw everything in between. And it was just an amazing experience to kind of as an 18 year old kid to experience, you know, 90 different families. And and, I remember one family really resonated with me. I I got there and I walked in the home. Oh, well, you know, you that kinda how the routine was.

Chris Voigt [00:05:30]:

You’d you’d go to the next school, like, at the end of the day, and you would speak at the school the next morning. So you would meet your host family that night. And I remember the AI teacher said, hey, Chris, before you go with this family, I wanna talk to you before you leave. And I thought, you know, sometimes the teacher say, hey, this kid’s got potential, you know, wants you to kinda work with them and, you know, give them some pointers. And it’s usually that type of conversation the teacher wants to have with me. So I just actually, we kinda got busy and I left without talking to the teacher. But I just assumed that that’s what he wanted me to talk about. And I remember walking into the home and it was just, I met mom and and it was just quiet.

Chris Voigt [00:06:09]:

It was probably one of the quietest homes I’ve ever been in. It was just kinda weird. And dad came home later and we’re sitting around, you know, the dinner table and, I’m just talking and and having fun and I was telling stories and talking about my family and so forth. And and really, it was a chance for us to kinda get to know together, you know, each other, but we were having fun doing it. And then, I was talking about their, you know, asking about their family and their kids and they talked about, another daughter that they had in college and so forth and learning about her. And then they said, we have another son and he had he had, died and we’d actually just buried him last week. Oh. And I was like, whew.

Chris Voigt [00:06:50]:

You know, here I am just oblivious to that. You know, no social awareness. Right. Having fun, laughing, and, it made me feel uncomfortable. But I remember the mom came in. It’s funny because I actually stayed in the bedroom of their son that passed away. And he passed away. I remember, must have been right at daylight savings time because his clock was an hour off, you know.

Chris Voigt [00:07:11]:

And I remember waking up an hour early because the clock was off, and I had kind of that moment to myself and kinda got out, in the in the kitchen just kinda sitting there, gathering my thoughts and the mom came in. And she came up and said, Chris, I gotta thank you, you know, having you in our home. And and you kinda gave us permission to kinda go on with our life, you know, by by having that. And so it was an amazing experience. You know, as an 18 year old, kind of really kind of experience those types of things. So Ag is just really, you know, being able to see hundred different Ag families. And just the passion that they all have, it’s been a really neat experience. And so that really just kind of ignited my interest in agriculture.

Chris Voigt [00:07:53]:

So I went to Oregon State University, got an Ag Econ degree, got really involved in student government there.

Scott Cowan [00:07:58]:

Okay.

Chris Voigt [00:07:59]:

I was, I think, three different student body officers, and then, did internships. So at some point, I was going to school six months and then working six months, for some different agriculture, companies. Finally graduated. My first job, they shipped me off to, New Jersey. I was working for a big, actually an agriculture chemical company. They transferred me, and they gave me a choice. Okay. Do you wanna live in Jackson, Mississippi? Or do you wanna live in, Charleston, South Carolina? And I’m a I mean, I was a surfer also kinda learned to surf in Oregon.

Chris Voigt [00:08:32]:

So I was like, hey, Charleston, you know. Okay. I’m either a mountain or beach kinda guy. And so Charleston was an opportunity for me to go there. And, yeah. Loved living in Charleston for the I think I was there for about two and a half years. Enjoyed that experience. Two and a half years is probably just about the right amount of time, I think.

Chris Voigt [00:08:49]:

Came back to the Northwest, and I worked for another company. And they eventually transferred me to California. And what they wanted me to do is, kinda launch a line of biological products to, to help farmers, you know, essentially essentially putting good, bacteria and good funguses into the soil, to help, rejuvenate crops and increase, their fertility. I remember one of the products was like this fungus you’d put in the soil called mycorrhizal fungi. And you would, inoculate plants’ roots with it or the seeds, And this fungus would actually attach to the roots of the plant and just spread out, and, actually, they would act as a root system too. So they were picking up water and nutrients, delivering it back to the plant. In exchange, the fungus got, you know, a little bit of nutrient or, you know, essentially sugars or, from the plant to keep going. And so it was like the symbiotic relationship.

Chris Voigt [00:09:41]:

And so, yeah, working with those types of products. And then the company, decided, yeah, we’re gonna shut down our egg division. And, and I was like, oh, alright. And, and it because I was just at the point of kinda launching this new product line, and I had to go back and because I was hyping it up and had all these magazine articles out in different Ag publications. And I, was thumbing through magazines to figure out, okay, did I forget to cancel out an ad contract? You know, I I was looking for magazines hoping not to see my ad that I remember to actually cancel some of these contracts. And I picked up, I think it was a Spudman magazine.

Scott Cowan [00:10:18]:

Spudman?

Chris Voigt [00:10:19]:

Yeah. That’s what it was called.

Scott Cowan [00:10:21]:

Okay.

Chris Voigt [00:10:21]:

And, they had an ad. And I did see my ad, which is good. But I saw an ad for an opening with the, National Potato Board does kind of the kinda national advertising. It’s like the beef, it’s what’s for dimmer, but for potatoes. Mhmm. And so I looked at the kind of job description and I thought, yeah, I think that would be a really cool job to have. And so I was about to lose my job and, this came up and so, you know, me and I think 80 other applicants applied and and worked it down to me and I was hired. And that’s where my life of potatoes began.

Chris Voigt [00:11:00]:

And so that was roughly about, oh, man, ’20 ’20 going on twenty nine years now.

Scott Cowan [00:11:07]:

When we did the pre interview, you told me this story. I’m gonna I’m gonna kinda paraphrase it back to you. Okay? But I asked you how you met your wife.

Chris Voigt [00:11:18]:

Oh, yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:11:19]:

And you met at a potato conference, which just made me chuckle just because, like, you know, other potato conferences? Okay. You you met at a potato conference. And I I know I’m skipping over things, and I might not get it a % correctly, but I’m going in a direction. You guys started dating, and it was a long distance relationship. And if I remember correctly, you were in the Denver area, and she was in the in the Boise area.

Chris Voigt [00:11:41]:

That’s correct. Yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:11:42]:

And you kinda yeah. I think you you I think it’s maybe safe to say you guys were torn. One of you had to move. If the relationship was gonna evolve, one of you had to move. And I’d like you to tell the audience in your words how you guys decided who was gonna move.

Chris Voigt [00:12:03]:

You know, and I would love to talk to other people who’ve done the long distance relationship thing to see what normal people do on managing that type of decision. Because, you know, both my wife and I, we loved our jobs, and we weren’t real eager to leave those. I mean, we were in love with each other. Right. We kinda wanted to take the relationship to the next level, but it was a a really hard decision. And so we did what we thought was the right way to decide this instead of flipping a coin, which maybe some people would do when they come to an impasse. We decided to bet on a hockey game. So, there was a minor Boise has a minor league hockey team called the Steelheads.

Chris Voigt [00:12:43]:

Mhmm. And then Colorado Springs had a minor league hockey team, and they were playing.

Scott Cowan [00:12:48]:

Okay.

Chris Voigt [00:12:48]:

And so we put it all on the line. I was like, hey. Whoever wins that hockey game, that’s where we’re gonna live. So either we’re gonna live in Idaho or we’re gonna live in Colorado based upon who won that hockey.

Scott Cowan [00:13:00]:

Now now I have to ask a couple of questions here because we we still don’t know who moved yet. Right? We haven’t we haven’t disclosed that yet. So we’re building this up. But but remember, hockey can have a tie. What were you guys gonna do if it was a tie?

Chris Voigt [00:13:14]:

Didn’t even think about that. Okay. Alright. We so yeah. That’s that’s a good point.

Scott Cowan [00:13:18]:

That’s question number one I have. Question number two. Were you guys were you physically at this game? Yes. And was it in Boise or was it in Colorado Springs?

Chris Voigt [00:13:28]:

It was in Boise.

Scott Cowan [00:13:29]:

So you you gave a little bit of home field advantage to her, home ice advantage, because it’s her team was the home team. Or I’m assuming she was she was betting with Boise, and you were betting with Colorado.

Chris Voigt [00:13:40]:

That’s correct.

Scott Cowan [00:13:42]:

So did did you attend the game in person?

Chris Voigt [00:13:45]:

Yes. We did. And

Scott Cowan [00:13:49]:

before we announce the winner, was there tension between the two of you while the game was going on?

Chris Voigt [00:13:59]:

Well, you know and this was a three game stand too. And so I was like, okay. Which of the three games are we gonna give you?

Scott Cowan [00:14:05]:

Okay. I didn’t think about that angle. Alright.

Chris Voigt [00:14:06]:

Alright. Yeah. And and which was kind of unusual. And I don’t know if it was kind of was kinda towards the end of the season and, you know, maybe they had some games to to, catch up on. Okay. So we picked the first game.

Scott Cowan [00:14:16]:

Okay.

Chris Voigt [00:14:16]:

Yeah. That’s the one we decided to bet on. And, I think that probably, you know, I think I probably had a couple beers probably in the stands. It kind of probably helped loosen the mood a little bit to relieve some of that tension. And then they got this thing called Huck a Puck, at the Steelhead game where they have, like, these, foam rubber hockey pucks. This is kind of a fundraiser. And, you know, you’re supposed to like throw it and and they got numbers on it and they track the numbers. And, whoever’s puck lands on center ice, they win, like, I don’t know, half the pot of money Okay.

Chris Voigt [00:14:55]:

Or something that was in it, something like that. And so, my Stephanie, my girlfriend at the time, and now wife, we both each, bought hockey pucks. And it’s not it wasn’t part of the bet or anything, but it it really kind of loosened up the, the mood when I I’m seeing my wife, and she was a softball player in in, like, high school, tried to throw these pucks on the ice. And so I remember she hit this pregnant woman right off the bat. That is just it just started, like, busting it up. And, of course, in the pregnant woman was fine. It was just a foam rubber puck. But, yeah.

Chris Voigt [00:15:29]:

We were we were kinda having fun with it. And and it was actually I gotta admit, there wasn’t a lot of tension at all. Okay. Because it was like, whoever wins, you know, that means we’re gonna be together.

Scott Cowan [00:15:40]:

Right. Right.

Chris Voigt [00:15:40]:

Yeah. One of us is going to, you know, have to leave and quit their job, but yet, you know, we’re we’re gonna have a lifetime to do that.

Scott Cowan [00:15:47]:

Before we answer, what was the final score? Don’t say who won, but what was the final score?

Chris Voigt [00:15:52]:

You know, I’m embarrassed, Scott. I don’t You

Scott Cowan [00:15:54]:

don’t remember?

Chris Voigt [00:15:55]:

The final

Scott Cowan [00:15:56]:

score. You were betting. You

Chris Voigt [00:15:58]:

I know. You would think that something as momentous as this occasion.

Scott Cowan [00:16:01]:

Alright. So You

Chris Voigt [00:16:01]:

would remember the score. But

Scott Cowan [00:16:03]:

Who moved?

Chris Voigt [00:16:05]:

So, my U Haul showed up in Boise, Idaho about, four months later.

Scott Cowan [00:16:10]:

Alright.

Chris Voigt [00:16:12]:

See But I didn’t I didn’t have to quit my job. I was the first remote employee that the National Potato promotion had. It was kind of kind of ironic because actually, the day that so I got back from Boise, got to Denver, and we were having this long range strategic planning meeting going on and, at this hotel facility and all these potato growers from around the country were there. And I was walking in. My boss was walking out. I was like, I didn’t I was like, why why is he leaving? He got fired that morning. And he was the guy I had to ask permission to, hey, Doug. It’s either I you gotta give me permission to work, you know, in Boise or I gotta quit.

Chris Voigt [00:16:56]:

And so that’s why I actually had to you know, they had to hire a new person. And literally, I had to wait four months for the new person to get on board. And literally, like, the first week, the job for the new CEO of the potato board, I had to walk in. I’m like, you know, they don’t really know me that well, but I need to move to Boise. And can we you let me work from home in in Boise?

Scott Cowan [00:17:16]:

Now did you tell the CEO you needed to move because you lost a bet?

Chris Voigt [00:17:20]:

I I I did not tell him about the hockey game losing a bet until after he allowed me to move. But yeah. So, here he goes. You’re right. I I really don’t know you, but let me talk to my executive committee. And they were the executive committee said, yeah. We we wanna keep Chris around. So they were really gracious and let me move.

Scott Cowan [00:17:39]:

So we got we we got you from Oregon. We got you in Colorado. We got you in Idaho now. So what How do we get you back to wash or not back to? How how did you end up in Washington?

Chris Voigt [00:17:50]:

Oh, yeah. So, got married and started a family, you know, and our our son was a a difficult pregnancy for my wife. You know, I think my wife went into labor at twenty two weeks. And so, you know, we really kind of she was on bed rest and, you know, struggling to keep that little guy in her. And so it was a lot of stressful trips to the hospital to try to stop contract contractions. And then eventually, she gave birth to him about two months early. Okay. And, he was, you know, he was early.

Chris Voigt [00:18:18]:

His lungs weren’t developed enough. Couldn’t breathe on his own. So he was in intensive care for, a few weeks. But, you know, it all worked out. He had kind of a hole in the heart, but everything worked. And then, as, I think going through that kind of trauma for your first child kind of, realigns what your values are a little bit. And all of a sudden, yeah, career is important and you gotta provide for your family, but it’s not everything. And my job really required a lot of travel.

Chris Voigt [00:18:45]:

I was traveling on the road quite a bit. Okay. And I didn’t wanna do that. I didn’t want to have my son grow up, you know, not knowing who his dad was essentially, or being, you know, a weekend parent. And so there was an opportunity actually back in Colorado, working just specifically for the Colorado growers that didn’t require, a lot of, national travel. And so, yeah, a year after my son was born, we we moved back to Colorado.

Scott Cowan [00:19:14]:

Back to Colorado.

Chris Voigt [00:19:15]:

So we moved to like, if you were to put your finger in the middle of Colorado and go down almost to the New Mexico border, that’s where we’re at. And it’s a very kind of isolated but beautiful area of Colorado. It’s called the San Luis Valley. And we lived in a little town called South Fork, Colorado. And, its claim to fame was the original, Chevy Chase vacation movie

Scott Cowan [00:19:38]:

Yeah.

Chris Voigt [00:19:38]:

Was filmed. Now the portion of it was filmed there, like, where he tied the dog to the back pump bumper and drove off.

Scott Cowan [00:19:44]:

Oh, really? Okay.

Chris Voigt [00:19:46]:

And there was, like, a rest area. We actually there was a rest area where Christie Brinkley was dance or was dancing in the parking lot with her Ferrari. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen the

Scott Cowan [00:19:54]:

movie, Scott. I have.

Chris Voigt [00:19:56]:

But yeah. So yeah. Our our house was, like, I don’t know, quarter mile from where Christie Brinkley was named. The only thing

Scott Cowan [00:20:01]:

that would make that story better is that you got the original station wagon from the the movie, and that’s what your family car was when you were there.

Chris Voigt [00:20:08]:

Well, the the potato vehicle that I drove for working for the Colorado Growers was kind of the suburban version of that. Alright. Family Truckster.

Scott Cowan [00:20:17]:

Yeah. Yeah. The Family Truckster. Well, what brought you to Oh,

Chris Voigt [00:20:20]:

and then okay. Then I’m sorry.

Scott Cowan [00:20:21]:

So yeah. So what brought you to Washington?

Chris Voigt [00:20:24]:

Yeah. So after three great years in Colorado, and the Colorado growers were wonderful to work for, you know, I we recognize that. You know, then we had another child and it’s like, you know, we were only seeing our parents or the grandparents, you know, maybe, you know, a couple times during a year. And it’s kinda like, you know, you know, and our parents were getting up there in age and it was kinda like, you know, maybe maybe we should see about, you know, is there a way to get closer to home so that, you know, our kids could have, you know, a relationship with their grandparents. And so, yeah, there was an opening that, opened up in Washington. Essentially the same job that I was doing in Colorado in Washington with the Washington State Potato Commission. So, actually, I didn’t apply right away. The deadline went and passed and then a girl from Colorado called or from, Washington called me and said, hey, you know, we’re going through a stack of resumes.

Chris Voigt [00:21:14]:

We were kind of actually hoping to see yours in there. And so, that count was, that kind of pushed me over the edge. Just like, hey, you know, actually they, you know, maybe they do want me there. And so, I applied and yeah, I was hired and then we moved and I’ve been here for nineteen and a half years. So it’s worked out really well.

Scott Cowan [00:21:33]:

Alright. But something you said earlier, earlier on in your career, when you had the choice between Charlotte and, where Jackson or whatever the Mississippi town was. I can’t remember. Sorry. You said you’re a mountain or or water guy, but Moses Lake I mean, it’s got a lake, but it’s pretty flat there. There’s not a lot of I mean, you you were compromising, I guess, for outdoor activities, maybe.

Chris Voigt [00:21:57]:

Yeah. I mean, there’s so we don’t have mountains right by us. We don’t have an ocean right by us. Nope. But, you know, it’s all kind of within a reasonable drive. I I’m kind of a big time skier, so, Mission Ridge, outside of Wenatchee was kind of the whole mountain. And that’s, you know, hour and a half away. So, you know, not unreasonable.

Chris Voigt [00:22:17]:

So, you know, if

Scott Cowan [00:22:18]:

you got a

Chris Voigt [00:22:18]:

chance to get

Scott Cowan [00:22:18]:

a Do you do do you ski at Mission a lot? Or did you? Or

Chris Voigt [00:22:23]:

Yeah. I used to a lot at Mission. And now, my son actually graduated college recently and is now one of the marketing directors for another ski resort. That’s his dream job. He graduated in sports business management. And so he walked, worked for a soccer club in Arizona for a year. Wanted to get back, back to the Northwest. He’s kind of a mountain ski guy.

Chris Voigt [00:22:47]:

Right. We got him started when he was three years old. And yeah, I got a job at Lookout Pass, actually, which is right on the border of, Idaho and Montana. Literally, like, half the resort’s in Idaho and the other half is in Montana.

Scott Cowan [00:22:59]:

So you go the other direction now? You head east to coasting. Okay.

Chris Voigt [00:23:02]:

Yeah. That’s a longer drive now. Now it’s a a three hour drive, but at least I can spend the weekend. Right.

Scott Cowan [00:23:06]:

Okay. On. So the Washington Potato Commission, for the listener that isn’t up on what these type of trade organizations do, What’s kind of the history of the of this, and what’s its current

Chris Voigt [00:23:26]:

focus? Yeah. So, back in nineteen fifth probably 1955, the potato growers in state came together and said, hey. And there’s a lot of things we gotta do for our industry that none of us can do on our own. You know, none of us can hire an entomologist or a pathologist to help us with potato research. None of us have enough money to do, you know, promotions in Chicago. You know, none of us, you know, have the ability to represent ourselves in Olympia or Washington, DC. Why don’t we come together collectively and sort of, have a mandatory tax where everybody kinda has to pay in a little bit. So, they went to the state legislature and said, hey, we’d like to create, a potato commission.

Chris Voigt [00:24:10]:

You know, we want we don’t want funding from you. We’ll fund it ourselves. Mhmm. We just need that sort of mandatory tax and authority. And so right now, every potato grower pays 4¢ for every hundred pounds of potatoes that we grow. And when you kinda pull those 4¢ together, it works out to, you know, roughly between 3 and a half to $4,000,000 depending on on the year. And our number one focus, Scott, is really on research. Mhmm.

Chris Voigt [00:24:35]:

So how can we grow more food using less resources? So less fertilizer, less water, less pest control products. And how, you know, how can we increase yields on on an acre of ground?

Scott Cowan [00:24:47]:

So I’m a little confused. So are you saying that the potato growers petitioned Olympia to basically tax them on production? And that that 4¢, a hundred pounds, is collected by the state of Washington.

Chris Voigt [00:25:03]:

No. Actually, the state’s not even involved in it. It’s collected by directly by the potato commission.

Scott Cowan [00:25:06]:

So so okay. But it’s a is it is it technically a tax that’s levied on production?

Chris Voigt [00:25:14]:

Yeah. It’s called an assessment.

Scott Cowan [00:25:15]:

Assessment. Okay. So it’s an assessment. So so they’ve agreed mutually agreed, and the state set the assessment up. And then so I’m a potato grower. I grow a hundred pounds of potatoes. I give you 4¢, basically. And then Yep.

Scott Cowan [00:25:32]:

We’d pool our I mean, we’re obviously dealing with lots more than a hundred pounds at a time, but you get the idea. Okay. Alright. So one of the things that I don’t that I’m kind of aware of in a very loose way, but I wonder if our if my audience is is aware of this, is that Washington state is a very large potato growing region. Yes. They’re not the largest producer of potatoes in The US, though. Correct? Or

Chris Voigt [00:26:08]:

That is correct. On total yeah. Idaho has more acres than we do and produces a total production of more. But kind of our claim to fame is our yield, our per acre yield is the highest in the world. So even though we don’t have the total production, that Idaho has just because they have more land managed potatoes, we actually have, the highest yields in the world. So and to put it in perspective, so we’re roughly about 23% of the nation’s potato supply. K. And Idaho is about 28 to 29%.

Scott Cowan [00:26:45]:

So really between Washington and Idaho, about half the potatoes in The US are grown in Washington and Idaho.

Chris Voigt [00:26:51]:

Yep. Yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:26:53]:

Where where’s the other well, they’re half grown. What other states are big potato producers?

Chris Voigt [00:26:59]:

So then it goes to states like and they’re all probably North Dakota, where I think it’d be third, a fair amount growing in right on the kind of the border of North Dakota and Minnesota. Okay. Probably a little bit more in North Dakota. That’s called the Red River Valley. There’s a the Red River actually, I think is the dividing line, yeah, of the state of North Dakota and Minnesota. And then, Colorado, is the second largest, fresh potato. They don’t have any processing or very little processing in Colorado, so it’s all fresh potatoes. And then, Oregon is right up there with Colorado.

Chris Voigt [00:27:35]:

And then you get into states like, Wisconsin, has a would be probably kinda next in line, and Michigan, and then Maine. I mean, technically, potatoes are grown in all 50 states. Mhmm. But, the top 10 are kind of in the northern tier Interesting. Of The United States. So kind of from Maine all the way to, Washington.

Scott Cowan [00:27:57]:

So what is it about Washington state that allows us to have the most production per acre?

Chris Voigt [00:28:08]:

Several things. One is the volcanic soils are awesome. K. It’s just the right texture and consistency, for growing potatoes. And then also the long growing season. You know, we actually have a a pretty long growing season compared to any other potato growing region in the country. So that, you know, the longer a potato plant is alive, the the more and bigger the potatoes will grow. And so that’s another reason why we have high yields.

Chris Voigt [00:28:40]:

And then our ability, you know, most of our potatoes, about 90% are grown on the East Side Of The Cascades, maybe 92%, and about eight to 10% is grown in the Skagit Valley, so North Of Seattle.

Scott Cowan [00:28:53]:

Right.

Chris Voigt [00:28:54]:

In the desert of Central Washington, you know, where you only get, you know, six inches of rainfall a year precipitation. Mhmm. So we have to irrigate the potatoes in in Eastern Washington. And so we’re able to literally, with our irrigation systems are so high-tech now, we can deliver the exact amount of water exactly when the plant needs it. Mhmm. So, other portions of the country don’t necessarily have that. I mean, they have, they have to deal with, thunderstorms during the summer.

Scott Cowan [00:29:25]:

Right.

Chris Voigt [00:29:25]:

So, anytime you throw up a bunch of water, you know, into a potato field and, you know, if it rains two inches and it’s gotta sit there, you’re you’re able to rot the potatoes because all that excess water or it creates a really rich environment for funguses or bacteria to take off and a lot of disease pressure. So we’re really fortunate that desert climate, and our long growing season, the ability to provide the exact amount of water exactly when the plant needs it, it really combines to just perfect optimal conditions, and that’s why we have the highest yields in the world. K. And with the high yield, not only high yields, but also the most consistent quality. Potatoes are kinda finicky. They don’t like big fluctuation and changes in the weather or moisture. So the more consistent you can be, the more consistent your quality will

Scott Cowan [00:30:15]:

be. Alright.

Chris Voigt [00:30:15]:

And when I say quality, it means like, you know, it’s a it’s a nice kind of oblong potato. It doesn’t lots of times if if it’s subject to different extremes and temperatures, it’ll have all sorts of like growth cracks, or it’ll be sideways, or crooked, or it’ll have nubs on it. And so, yeah, we’re we’re really consistent.

Scott Cowan [00:30:35]:

Alright.

Chris Voigt [00:30:35]:

And because of that, so we’re high yielding, high quality. It’s really attracted a lot of potato processors to Washington State, because they know they’ll have a reliable, high quality, high yields every year. And so we actually have the highest concentration of potato processors for sure in The United States. And and I haven’t looked recently, but potentially also in the world. Okay. Just because and so roughly about 92% of what we grow ends up in a, processed potato product. It could be a French fry, a waffle fry, hash brown patty, instant mashed potatoes, potato chips. So it’s a wide variety of products.

Chris Voigt [00:31:20]:

And and that’s actually really good for the economies in a lot of rural towns because it provides a lot of jobs. You know, we only have roughly you know, we count brothers and uncles and cousins farming together. We say we got about 300 potato farmers, but really, there’s only about 80 potato farm entities in the state. Okay. But yet, they’re responsible for almost 7 and a half billion dollars in economic activity just because of all the value added jobs and the amount of exports we do. You know, we export anywhere between 50 to 70% of our products. And so, it has a huge impact on our on our economy. Roughly about 36,000 jobs are associated with potatoes.

Chris Voigt [00:32:02]:

So Wow. It’s a it’s no small potato. No small potato. No.

Scott Cowan [00:32:07]:

You’ve been waiting to work that one in. So what is the approximate what do you guys I don’t wanna say, What’s the yield per acre that they’re they’re looking for? What is what what are these these farms, like, trying to yield for an acre?

Chris Voigt [00:32:27]:

The higher, the better.

Scott Cowan [00:32:28]:

Well

Chris Voigt [00:32:28]:

but You know? So, you know okay. So so in perspective, so roughly, I would say the average yield in Idaho, for example, is roughly about, you know, 400 sacks to the acre or so. A hundred pound sack.

Scott Cowan [00:32:44]:

Okay. 400 sacks to the acre. 4,000 pounds per acre.

Chris Voigt [00:32:49]:

No. It would be,

Scott Cowan [00:32:50]:

40,000. 40 thousand. 40 thousand pounds an acre. Okay.

Chris Voigt [00:32:54]:

So our average in in Washington is roughly about 640 sacks to the acre. Now that is kind of misleading because there’s a significant portion of our potatoes that we actually harvest early. Because our because we have potato processors, I mean, they have like $500,000,000 plants.

Scott Cowan [00:33:12]:

Right.

Chris Voigt [00:33:13]:

And so for a company to kind of recoup that type of capital investment, I mean, they gotta be able to run their plants year round. Right. You know, three hundred sixty five days or try to get to close to that. And so they need potatoes three hundred sixty five days. And so typically how it works is, we start harvesting potatoes in July. And, generally, our our potato processors run out of potatoes in June. So we’re able to store potatoes Mhmm. Certain varieties for a long time.

Chris Voigt [00:33:44]:

And as soon as we run out of those, they need potatoes right away. Well, typically, most potatoes, you know, if you grow them in your garden, they’re really not ready until September or October. But we have some varieties that are ready in July and but they yield lower.

Scott Cowan [00:33:58]:

Okay.

Chris Voigt [00:33:58]:

So we’re sacrificing yield in July and August just to be able to kind of feed, the demand for these processes.

Scott Cowan [00:34:07]:

But it’s a collaborative effort here. You’re providing them they’re they’re based here. Yeah. That makes sense to me.

Chris Voigt [00:34:12]:

Yeah. So but we have fields that will crack, I think every, you know, every year we’ve got fields that crack over a thousand sacks to the acre.

Scott Cowan [00:34:22]:

Wow. Okay.

Chris Voigt [00:34:24]:

So we’re growing roughly about 10,000,000,000 pounds of potatoes 10. Here in Washington state.

Scott Cowan [00:34:29]:

Ten billion pounds of potatoes.

Chris Voigt [00:34:32]:

Yeah. Alright. And so but, you know, this you you bring up, you know, I’d mentioned one of the core missions of what we did. The Potato Commission is research. Right. So I’ve got I every farmer you could talk to, they’ll say, okay. I’ve got a field that yields, let’s say, a 30 ton per acre. But I’ve got another field literally right across the road that’s at 38 ton breaker.

Chris Voigt [00:34:58]:

I manage you know, they’re very similar soils, I think, and I manage them the same way, water them the same way, take care of them, nurture them, but one is just consistently out yielding the other. And so, what we really think is going on is is biologically, there’s something different in the soil. If the soil structures are the same, same types of soil, but one is yielding so much more than the other, but yet they’re managed in the same amount of fertilizer, same amount of water. What’s going on here? And we believe that it’s biologically, it’s it’s the bio organisms in the soil that are having an impact. So we’ve launched we’ve actually partnered with Washington State University and created about a 3 and a half million dollar endowment to hire a soil health scientist, that’ll specialize in potato cropping systems to help us figure that out. How can we take those lower performing fields that are only yielding 30 ton and get them up to, you know, that 38 ton field across the street. And so, we think it’s really about the biology. You know, what there’s something different about that soil, that’s making it underperforming or over-performing.

Chris Voigt [00:36:05]:

And so, we’re trying to crack that nut. And so, we’re we’ve literally been pulling soil samples for the last four years from every potato field and doing like a DNA analysis. You know, we’re of the I mean, you you take a a a cord of soil and there’s gonna be millions and millions and millions of organisms in there. And we’re literally, trying to get a DNA analysis of everything that’s in that soil and then comparing the two. You know, what’s what’s what what is the biology of lower performing soils and what’s the biology of higher performing soils? And then we gotta figure out, okay, now that we know what the difference is, how do we change the biological populations? How do we get more beneficial organisms in the lower performing soils? And so, yeah, it’s, it’s kind of a long term, effort. And I know, like, the state legislature, I think it was maybe six years ago, kind of launched a big initiative, soil health initiative for the state of Washington. And so that’s also helping us get closer to that goal. But it really is a long term study of, you know, trying to figure that out.

Scott Cowan [00:37:09]:

During our pre call, one of the other things you mentioned to me was kind of the the origin of the tater tot. But before we talk about that, I do have a this may not be applicable at all, but in the Apple industry, if an app apples you know, good looking apples are sold for retail. Ugly apples, blemished apples are sold for juicing or whatever. Is that is there a similar correlation in the potato industry?

Chris Voigt [00:37:46]:

Yes and no. So generally speaking, if you’re growing potatoes for processing, so to make French fries or, you know, even tater tots or hash brown patty, whatever it may be, generally, it’s a pretty high quality potato. I mean, it would look really good in in a grocery store. It’d be nice size and so forth. But we’re now French fries are I mean, particularly French fries, you gotta have a really good high quality, potato, long one. Mhmm. You know, because you want these long french fries. Nobody likes broken little pieces or small pieces of french fries in a container.

Chris Voigt [00:38:21]:

Right? And so you gotta have that. But in our fresh market, so like, growers who are growing for the fresh market, So potatoes that would end up in the grocery store or sold to restaurants. They pick out the best ones. And anything that’s off grade, so anything that’s got little deforms or nicks or growth cracks or anything like that, some kind of blemish on it. Those aren’t good enough for I mean, if we put it in the grocery store, you you wouldn’t pick it up. You’d pick up the nicer one right next to it. And so we take those, we call those off grade potatoes. And we send them mostly to be made into, like, instant mashed potatoes or dehydrating products.

Chris Voigt [00:39:00]:

Yeah. And so, you know, a lot of people think instant mashed potatoes is fake potatoes. It’s not real. It literally is. I think if I were to take you into a plant, Scott, you could literally see the potatoes in a line. It’s like a big trough Uh-huh. Depending on there’s a couple different ways to make it, but it’s like a trough. And it’s got these mixers, a conveyor, and the potatoes start out as peeled potatoes, and they go through this kind of mechanism grinder thingy.

Chris Voigt [00:39:25]:

Then you can watch it, it. And then all of a sudden, it looks like mashed potatoes, and then it goes into a dryer, and the dryer just sucks all the water out of it. And at the end of it, it’s just this powdery potato.

Scott Cowan [00:39:35]:

Interesting.

Chris Voigt [00:39:36]:

It’s literally the exact potato you would eat. It’s just all the water was taken out. And so that’s actually what instant mashed potatoes is. But so that’s where they generally they don’t really care if there were blemishes on the potatoes or anything like that because they’re gonna grind it up anyways. And so, as long as there’s no rot, you know, they can’t afford to have any rot in in your instant mashed potatoes.

Scott Cowan [00:39:58]:

What do they do? She just said they’re the the potatoes are peeled. What’s done with all these peels?

Chris Voigt [00:40:06]:

Ah, that is a very good question. It’s, yeah. I mean, what are you gonna do with potato peels? I mean, you know, you can’t sell them. There’s really not a market for potato peels per se. So they make wonderful cow feed. K. So they are hauled off to, usually to either cattle feedlots or to dairies. Okay.

Chris Voigt [00:40:28]:

And, the dairy guys and the cattle feedlots. Cows love potatoes. And you can actually feed them whole potatoes. They love them. Okay. And so, yeah. Nothing goes to waste.

Scott Cowan [00:40:37]:

I was gonna say, yeah.

Chris Voigt [00:40:39]:

Yeah. Whatever doesn’t go to a grocery store ends up in like an instant mashed potato. And even the peelings from there Okay. Go out to cattle feed.

Scott Cowan [00:40:47]:

So back to the tater tot.

Chris Voigt [00:40:51]:

Yeah. So the tater tot. This was created, man, I think back in the nineteen fifties. There was a company, called Ore Ida. Maybe you’ve heard of it.

Scott Cowan [00:41:01]:

It’s a puncher twice.

Chris Voigt [00:41:01]:

And their their plant is literally, like, right on the board. The reason why it’s called Ore-Ida is because their, french fry plant, it was located, like, close to the border. Okay. It was, like, right in Ontario, Oregon, which is right across from, the Snake River kind of divides Idaho and Oregon right there. And Ontario is on one side. And then I don’t think there’s really a city on the other side of Idaho, but it’s right there. And so that’s why it was called Ore-Ida, because it was kind of straddling the line and, you know, potatoes were coming both from Oregon and and Idaho. And so they were making french fries, but the guy making the french fries, you know, as you imagine like a round potato and and maybe if you’ve ever made homemade French fries at home, you know, you got maybe you got some type of French fry cutter, you know, where you put the potato on these crisscross blades and you, you know, push down on it.

Chris Voigt [00:41:50]:

Well, the longest french fries are gonna be where?

Scott Cowan [00:41:52]:

In the center of

Chris Voigt [00:41:53]:

the potato. Coming from the center of the potato. Right? And so the smaller slivers on the side of the potato, because it’s narrower or smaller there, nobody, you know, he couldn’t sell that. And so he was actually having to feed all of the little slivers to cows

Scott Cowan [00:42:09]:

Right.

Chris Voigt [00:42:09]:

You know, essentially, or throwing them away. And so he thought, man, what a waste. I’m like throwing away, you know, 30%. Is there is there a way that I Wow. You know, other than giving them for free to the cattle guys, what can I do with these? And we actually came up with the idea of, I wanna kind of chop them up and then mold them and and squeeze them through a little machine and then just cut off it a little pieces off them. And that’s where the tater tot was born. It literally was taking the scraps, all these smaller slivers of potatoes, kind of grinding them up and shooting them through a mold to where it produced these little kind of nugget size tater tots that we now enjoy. And Ore-Ida has the trademark on tater tots.

Chris Voigt [00:42:55]:

Every company makes a tater tot, but only Ore-Ida can call it a tater tot. So well, and Napoleon Dynamite, he calls it tater tots. That’s all.

Scott Cowan [00:43:04]:

Alright. Now, what form what’s the number one selling form of potato? How are potatoes consumed? What’s the number one way that we consume potatoes?

Chris Voigt [00:43:17]:

Yeah. It would it would be definitely French fries.

Scott Cowan [00:43:19]:

French fries.

Chris Voigt [00:43:20]:

Would be the number of what? Yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:43:21]:

Okay. I’m gonna put you on the spot. Who’s got the best French fries in the fast food business?

Chris Voigt [00:43:28]:

Oh, man. I tell you what. I mean, I am a connoisseur. I mean, I it’s rare that I’ll run across a French fry that I don’t like. Okay. But I would say, and knowing just the behind the scenes of of how a lot of different fast food restaurants operate Mhmm. And, you know, your attention or non attention to their french fries. I would say that, McDonald’s is very rigorous about the quality.

Scott Cowan [00:43:56]:

K.

Chris Voigt [00:43:57]:

I would say Wendy’s is very rigorous. And I I so I kind of I love I love McDonald’s french fries. I think they’re great. I also love Wendy’s french fries. I love that skin on Mhmm. Portion of it. And there’s times there’s, you know, several companies that use kind of a batter coated fry. Yeah.

Chris Voigt [00:44:17]:

I think, like Burger King has a little bit of batter on it. Yeah. And I can appreciate that. I’m especially because, generally, the reason why they have a little bit of battering on it, it’s like a potato starch, actually. Mhmm. So it’s what they put on there is to actually kinda retain the heat. Oh. So it stays hot longer.

Scott Cowan [00:44:36]:

Okay.

Chris Voigt [00:44:36]:

So I’m I think everybody’s been to a a fast food restaurant and the fries are cold. Right? That’s awful. Yeah. I hate that. Burger King does actually a pretty good job because they have that batter coating on of trying to keep their fries hotter. But I tell you what, Scott, we learned during COVID, There’s another, manufacturer, ConAgra, Lamb Weston, Lamb Weston here in the state. They came up with an interesting approach. Not only did they come up with a because they were recognized particularly during COVID, the amount of food that was being, delivered Mhmm.

Chris Voigt [00:45:07]:

You know, by Uber Eats or or what have you. And, and the number one side dish for Uber Eats was French fries. That’s what they were folks were requesting. But lots of times, you know, French fries would get there cold or not hot. And so they actually combined a little bit of a batter coating on their French fry, a light coating, but with a special container that allowed sort of the steam to exit because that’s what was really causing sort of your French fry to go in.

Scott Cowan [00:45:36]:

Right. So,

Chris Voigt [00:45:37]:

I remember, touring their facility, and they had a great product, in this new French fry container. They cooked it, and it was still hot thirty minutes later sitting in that container and not being under a heat lamp or anything like that.

Scott Cowan [00:45:49]:

Okay.

Chris Voigt [00:45:50]:

So I thought it was fascinating. And other companies are are coming up with some more products now too.

Scott Cowan [00:45:54]:

Alright. What’s your favorite way to eat a potato? Oh, and I’m talking about not at home, but, like, you know, are you a waffle fry guy, tater tots? What you know, curly fries? What what do you potato chips?

Chris Voigt [00:46:07]:

Are you aware of the potato diet I did?

Scott Cowan [00:46:09]:

I am. I am. I am. Okay.

Chris Voigt [00:46:13]:

I would say,  I’m a mashed potato guy. Okay. I love mashed potatoes. There’s just something so comforting, about mashed potatoes. I love that. I mean, it just reminds me of home and family and, you know, sitting around the dinner table. And so, I like that. I I really do.

Chris Voigt [00:46:35]:

I think that is probably be my favorite. But I do have favorite potatoes based on how you’re gonna use them.

Scott Cowan [00:46:42]:

Okay.

Chris Voigt [00:46:43]:

So and a lot of people are surprised like a baked potato. Mhmm. I actually prefer a red baked potato. That’s my favorite. Like a red potato baked. So like a big red potato. That’s what I prefer for baked. When it comes for, mashed potatoes, I do like a yellow potato.

Chris Voigt [00:46:59]:

Most people a lot of people call them Yukon Gold, but Yukon Gold is actually kind of a crappy yellow potato. We’ve moved beyond Yukon Gold. There’s actually some very everybody calls them Yukon Gold, but it’s actually some other variety.

Scott Cowan [00:47:10]:

Okay.

Chris Voigt [00:47:11]:

And so there’s some really great ones for that I like for mashed potatoes. And then the old russet potato for frying.

Scott Cowan [00:47:17]:

Okay.

Chris Voigt [00:47:18]:

You know, for French fries or for, you know, frying up slices. That’s that’s how I like them.

Scott Cowan [00:47:23]:

So you mentioned your potato diet. So what I know is that I don’t know why you did it. So this that’s that’s what I want you to answer. But you you ate nothing but potatoes for sixty days, and you Yeah. You lost weight, and your cholesterol went down.

Chris Voigt [00:47:42]:

Yeah. Substantially.

Scott Cowan [00:47:43]:

So why what was the reason that you I mean, I’m teasing you, but it’s almost like you’re one of those, like, guys who goes, I’m gonna sit on top of this billboard for sixty days and, you know, so what what why did you do eating potatoes for sixty days? What was the what was the impetus for this?

Chris Voigt [00:48:00]:

So it was actually it was it was my version of a personal protest versus what the government was proposing.

Scott Cowan [00:48:06]:

Okay.

Chris Voigt [00:48:08]:

So at the time, there’s the WIC program. I don’t know if you’re familiar with that or not, but it stands for women, infants, and children. Think of it as sort of a supplement to food stamps. So mothers, that might be pregnant or have small children, they get a little extra money Right. Designed to make sure that they have enough to deliver nutrition to their kids.

Scott Cowan [00:48:29]:

Right.

Chris Voigt [00:48:30]:

Not a lot. You know, it used to be I think back then, this was 02/2010 when I did the potato diet. It was roughly around $10. $10 a month Okay. Is kind of what they’re looking at now. It’s a little bit more now. But, originally, the WIC program was really about delivering milk to kids. It was about making sure moms, you know, had a little extra money to make sure that their kids in the house had milk.

Chris Voigt [00:48:52]:

And that’s really kind of where it started. But the Institute of Medicine wrote a report. And they said, hey, you know, we looked at the WIC mothers and they’re at risk nutritionally. You know, they’re at risk for being deficient in vitamin c, in potassium, in fiber, in vitamin a. And I think the fifth one was, I wanna say folate

Scott Cowan [00:49:15]:

Okay.

Chris Voigt [00:49:15]:

I believe. And oh, and vitamin b six, I think. And, the Institute of Medicine said the best way to deliver those vitamins and minerals is really through, we should allow WIC mothers to use their WIC dollars for fresh fruits and vegetables. Institute of Medicine said, yeah. USDA, because it’s a USDA program, we recommend that you allow WIC mothers to meet their nutritional needs to use their WIC dollars on all fruits and vegetables except potatoes.

Scott Cowan [00:49:47]:

Except potatoes?

Chris Voigt [00:49:48]:

Except potatoes.

Scott Cowan [00:49:50]:

Okay.

Chris Voigt [00:49:52]:

And it’s so funny because it’s like the Institute of Medicine did never looked at a nutrition label for potatoes. And they would find that potatoes has I don’t know if there’s anything that has more potassium than potatoes. Mhmm. I mean, it’s like 50% more potassium in a potato than there is a banana. Right. You know, people always think of potassium in bananas, but actually potatoes, a lot more potassium. Half your allowance of vitamin c comes from a potato. A great source of folate, tremendous source of fiber.

Chris Voigt [00:50:27]:

You know, the only thing a potato didn’t have was vitamin a.

Scott Cowan [00:50:29]:

Mhmm.

Chris Voigt [00:50:30]:

But yet Institute of Medicine was also recommending you iceberg lettuce. You know, what’s an iceberg lettuce?

Scott Cowan [00:50:36]:

Or Crunchy water.

Chris Voigt [00:50:37]:

Very little nutrition in iceberg lettuce. So there were a lot of things like iceberg lettuce in, but not potatoes. And it just didn’t make sense, particularly as there were so many of the nutrients of concern, were actually present in the potato. So it literally didn’t make sense, and I poured through the report. And the only thing there was kind of a footnote in it that it sort of maybe hinted at, well, WIC mothers are poor and, potatoes are cheap, so they’re probably already buying them.

Scott Cowan [00:51:07]:

Mhmm.

Chris Voigt [00:51:08]:

And I was like, well yeah. But it’s the principal thing. If if you tell, you know, because part of WIC is also education. Right. Nutrition education. And if all of a sudden, a a WIC instructor says, hey, you know, you can use your dollars to buy any fruit or vegetable except potatoes. I mean, all of a sudden, you know, a consumer’s gonna think, oh, potatoes must be bad for me or bad for my kids. Right.

Chris Voigt [00:51:28]:

And so that’s what we didn’t want. And so, literally, I I I think I was watching a lot of Mythbusters at the time with my kids, and it was kinda like one of those worst case scenarios. Okay. Alright. People think potatoes are so bad for you or if the Institute of Medicine does, then I am gonna prove them wrong by eating nothing but potatoes. And it literally had to be nothing but potatoes because at the end of this, I had to make sure that I was isolating, you know, because if I was alive at the end of sixty days, I didn’t want someone to say, well, it was because you were, you know, putting sour cream or butter on it. That’s where you were getting a lot of your nutrients from. So literally, it was just potatoes, except for, you know, some seasonings, salt, pepper, oregano, whatever dry seasonings.

Chris Voigt [00:52:11]:

Right. And then, my doctor said, hey, there’s these things called the essential fatty acids. There’s no fat in a potato. So, my doctor said you get you gotta add fat to your diet. And so it sounds weird saying it out loud, but, I had to add french fries and potato chips to my potato diet to make it healthier because it had the essential fatty acids. And so I I ate so it was it was literally potatoes and then, the essential fatty acids. And so I I ate so it was it was literally potatoes and then, you know, I’d make homemade french fries or potato chips or something like that, with oil occasionally.

Scott Cowan [00:52:44]:

One of the things I read, I think, was that you you ate approximately 400 pounds of potatoes during this period of time?

Chris Voigt [00:52:52]:

I’ll have to be more than that. So it was it was, like, probably about seven and a half pounds a day.

Scott Cowan [00:52:58]:

Seven and a half pounds of potatoes a day. Okay. And you lost weight?

Chris Voigt [00:53:05]:

Oh, yeah. Yeah. You’re right. It was close. Yeah. 450.

Scott Cowan [00:53:07]:

And you lost weight. Yes. And I

Chris Voigt [00:53:11]:

was eating 20 potatoes a day, and I lost weight.

Scott Cowan [00:53:13]:

20 potatoes a day. And so how were you 21. Okay. Besides besides French fries and potato chips, walk me through a day. What were you what what were you having for breakfast?

Chris Voigt [00:53:27]:

Alright. It usually started the day before.

Scott Cowan [00:53:28]:

Okay.

Chris Voigt [00:53:29]:

So I I would actually, meal prep because I don’t know if you ever ate 20 potatoes a day, but it’s a lot

Scott Cowan [00:53:35]:

of work. I haven’t. I I might look like somebody would think I did, but, no, I don’t.

Chris Voigt [00:53:41]:

I mean, it’s like you’re literally having to eat, like, every half hour.

Scott Cowan [00:53:43]:

Really?

Chris Voigt [00:53:44]:

I mean, there were times where I would get to you know, it’d be 08:00 at night, and I only got to twelve. And I still had eight eight left to go, you know, and what was that time?

Scott Cowan [00:53:53]:

Okay. Why did you eat 20? Was that just the goal you set for yourself, or was that for calorie count? Or what was

Chris Voigt [00:54:00]:

Yeah. Calorie count. So I went online and, you know, kinda did the calorie counter thingy. And it said, the guy, my size, my activity level, and metabolism rate, you need to be eating 2,200 calories a day.

Scott Cowan [00:54:12]:

Okay.

Chris Voigt [00:54:13]:

And, a potato is a 110 calories. So it literally worked out perfect to be

Scott Cowan [00:54:17]:

Oh, wow. Okay.

Chris Voigt [00:54:18]:

I had to eat 20 potatoes a day to maintain my weight. Alright. Which I did. I tried hard. So I ended up losing 21 pounds. Okay. So and we did, you know and this wasn’t just a stunt. I mean, we wanted to do a little bit of science on it.

Chris Voigt [00:54:32]:

So, you know, I did a you know, physical at this start of the diet or just, you know, the day before the diet midway through to make sure I was doing okay, and then at the at the end. And, it was funny because I, when I you know, I I I came up with this idea about it, and I was just kinda kicking around, and I shared it with some of my growers, and they were like, really? We’re paying you to come up because you’re just gonna eat potatoes. That’s that’s how you’re gonna solve our problems. You’re just gonna eat them? What? I don’t I don’t know if anybody really grasped the thing except for one guy. One guy named a potato grower named, Lynn Olsen, kind of an old, crotchety guy. I think he saw value in it. He goes and it’s funny. He said this.

Chris Voigt [00:55:13]:

He goes, hey. When you’re on the Today Show, I wanna come with you. Oh, like, what? Today Show, So, anyways, I I was kicking I was kicking it around in my head. I thought it’d be kinda cool to do, and I think it would be a cool statement. But I was unsure of, you know I mean, the last thing you wanna do is announce to the world that you’re gonna eat nothing but potatoes, and at the end of sixty days, you die Right. From malnutrition or something. So I had to do the math, and I had to figure out, you know, can I live off of potatoes? And I started googling stuff, and no one had ever done this before. You know, I had heard stories about the Irish, right, in the in the ’18 you know, mid eighteen hundreds, became so reliant on potatoes.

Chris Voigt [00:55:56]:

And then when the potatoes suffered a big disease in their crops, that’s when they starved or they migrated. Right? And I heard that they were but they weren’t eating just potatoes. It was, like, often potatoes and milk or butter or wild game supplementing it. And I I came across a study, and I don’t even know how how I found it, but there was this doctor Khan, and he I think this was from the late eighteen hundreds. He had five subjects that ate just potatoes for sixty days just by coincidence. I already came up. My plan was to be sixty days, but he he had folks eating potatoes for sixty days. And I would have passed it, but it because the research title was something like, measuring, measuring the nitrogen content in their blood, on a potato diet.

Chris Voigt [00:56:47]:

And I was like, nitrogen in your blood? I mean, isn’t that, like, bad? Isn’t that like I was thinking like nitrogen bubbles, like, you know, the bins.

Scott Cowan [00:56:53]:

Right.

Chris Voigt [00:56:54]:

You know, divers, you know, have to be careful about. But it was actually What I didn’t recognize is that nitrogen was kind of protein levels of, of people in the in the protein levels in the blood of people who are eating just potatoes. And so that was literally the only reference I could find of anybody ever eating just potatoes for extended period of time. And so I started doing the math. I had to learn about protein. You know, I didn’t I thought protein was one thing, but it’s actually a combination. I got a it’s been fifteen years since I got thought about it. I think it’s, like, seven different amino acids that make up a complete protein.

Chris Voigt [00:57:32]:

And you’ve got to get the right amount of each of those amino acids to complete it. And so, you know, I did the math and figured it all out. And I figured, you know, some some of the amino acids I could get right away. Some of them might keep having to eat more potatoes. And so I figured out as long as I got to at least 14 of the 20 potatoes a day, I would complete my protein. And actually, I ended up eating if you eat 20 potatoes a day, I think you get like a 4% of the daily recommended allowance of protein. So oh, and then, you know, how much vitamin c I was getting and then I, you know, my doctor actually, you know, he was worried about the potassium level because there’s so much potassium Mhmm. In a potato.

Chris Voigt [00:58:11]:

You know, he wanted to make sure my kidneys were functioning.

Scott Cowan [00:58:13]:

Mhmm.

Chris Voigt [00:58:14]:

Because excess potassium is easily removed. You know, if you’ve got too much of it Right. In your body, it’s easily removed as long as your your kidneys are functioning properly. So he had to, you know, he wanted to make sure that, my overdose of potassium wasn’t harmful. And so, yeah, he, you know, my kidneys were working fine. And he goes, yeah, it’s not gonna be a problem whatsoever. So yeah, I did the math and and I think really the only the only vitamin that was of concern that I’d be short on was vitamin a.

Scott Cowan [00:58:40]:

Okay.

Chris Voigt [00:58:42]:

Because there’s just kind of a trace amount in a potato. But vitamin a is one of the fatty, acid, fat soluble vitamins. And so, you actually just naturally have a store of vitamin a in your body, in your fat cells. And as you burn through fat, then it releases it. And so I figured, you know, I I for sure had at least a sixty day supply of wouldn’t be a problem of vitamin A or any of my body.

Scott Cowan [00:59:10]:

So potatoes for 60 you said something, and I I I you you said something. I’m curious. What I saw online was that you you did about 300 media interviews. Was it during this process or after the after it was over?

Chris Voigt [00:59:26]:

Both. I would say it was probably, definitely peaked during it and then right after it. So I would say I mean, I’m I still I mean, it it still resonates with people. It was kind of one of those water cooler conversations that we’ve been looking for.

Scott Cowan [00:59:42]:

It really is fascinating. Yeah.

Chris Voigt [00:59:43]:

And so I’m still, I I still every year, I’m still, like, doing interviews, talking about it. And, actually, last night, I was I was with a bunch of, climate researchers, and I was only supposed to talk for a half hour. And, we’re talking about how the climate models and and what’s potato growing gonna look like thirty years from now because we gotta prepare for that. And, I was comparing rice and potatoes sort of on from a sustainability standpoint, talking about the benefits of potatoes. And I talked about also the nutritional benefits of potatoes. And then I said, oh, by the way, I ate nothing but potatoes. So we spent, like, the next hour and a half just talking about my potato diet. So, yeah.

Chris Voigt [01:00:23]:

It it really resonates. But, I forgot what the question is.

Scott Cowan [01:00:29]:

So the question the the question is, the grower mentioned you wanted to go on the Today Show, and I think you Oh, wait. Did you did you do the Today Show? Yeah. You did? Okay. Did he go with you?

Chris Voigt [01:00:42]:

No. He didn’t, and I’m so embarrassed because I forgot that he brought that up. I I I didn’t remember it until after the show, and he goes, hey. You were supposed to take me with you. And I was like and he was so cool because, like, the day I remember we had a we had a potato meeting on the last day of my just by coincidence, just a regular, like, potato commission meeting the last day of my diet, and he brought me, like, 10 pounds of bacon. He said, eat this tomorrow. You know?

Scott Cowan [01:01:12]:

Okay. That

Chris Voigt [01:01:12]:

But yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It it would do 300 interviews. It was, did Today Show, Good Morning America. It was on Fox, Bloomberg. And I got to do some weird fun things. I was, I was on radio in in Ireland.

Chris Voigt [01:01:29]:

I mean, that’s like the highlight of a potato guy. I mean, if you can be on radio in Ireland being a potato executive director of potato organization, I mean, that’s that’s like a high watermark, you know, and and, I got to sell the Wiggles. I don’t know if you ever heard of the kids being in the Wiggles. Of them. Yeah. They it’s an Australian kids group back I don’t know. My kids loved them when they were little, so it must have been from, I don’t know, fifteen, twenty years ago. They were kind of a hot thing.

Chris Voigt [01:01:55]:

And, they had a song called Hot Potato. And so I got to sing Hot Potato on Australian radio.

Scott Cowan [01:02:01]:

Oh my gosh.

Chris Voigt [01:02:02]:

Yeah. It was fun. And it was funny because I I I promised myself I’d be as transparent as I could. I would talk and I I, you know, I said, hey, I don’t know if I’m gonna cheat or not, you know, and if I do, I’ll let everybody know. And, and I said I would never turn down an interview. So, I mean, I am you know, of those 300, I mean, I did that. I remember, like, a small college in Massachusetts. Mhmm.

Chris Voigt [01:02:22]:

I remember doing, you know, an interview there, you know, we’ll see if they probably had eight people listening. I don’t know, because it was a college radio station. And then, you know, something is, like, Today Show and so forth. So and everything in between. The only time I turned one down was, I think I think Fox contacted me about, they wanted me to be on a show with another woman who was eating just french fries. And, I looked into it, and she was mental. Okay. She had a mental disorder that is this compulsion.

Scott Cowan [01:02:57]:

Got it.

Chris Voigt [01:02:58]:

And I’m like, hey. No. That’s not I don’t I

Scott Cowan [01:03:00]:

don’t That doesn’t seem correct.

Chris Voigt [01:03:01]:

Yeah. And they apologized. Like, oh, I didn’t realize that. Because I think they were doing, like, what weird people or what weird things people do, some kind of show back then.

Scott Cowan [01:03:08]:

Well, but here’s

Chris Voigt [01:03:09]:

the thing.

Scott Cowan [01:03:09]:

You did 300 interviews. And guaranteed, the audience that you reached over those 300 interviews eat potatoes. Not just Washington potatoes, but potatoes grown in North America Yeah. And probably worldwide. So you you were doing a big service for the whole potato industry with this in in a in a way. But what I wanna know, and you we’re amongst friends here. You can you can tell me. What food did you miss the most?

Chris Voigt [01:03:42]:

Funny that you should mention that because that was the number one media question I would get of the 300 interviews. I think everybody probably asked me that question or what’s gonna be the first thing you eat at the end of it. Kind of funny story. So about halfway through, so day 30 ish of of the sixty days, I was getting a fair amount of media attention at that point. And the first people to call me were the Washington cattlemen. I said, hey, Chris. At the end of your diet, we’ll come to your house, we’ll set up the barbecue grill in your driveway, we’ll cook up cook up some nice juicy steaks for you and your family, you know, the three of you would have is your first meal. And the apple guys call, the dairy guys call, the spare you know, so it just kinda went down the line.

Chris Voigt [01:04:28]:

And and I know all these guys, you know, I Right. Or, you know, AG’s a small community, and and I didn’t wanna hurt anybody’s feelings. So I actually kinda came up with a fun idea. So Moses Lake has a a head start program, that does a lot of the WIC education and and daycare and so forth. And so we, I talked to all my friends, all my commodity group friends, and we decided to, you know, why don’t we why don’t we go in and and, come to the the Head Start Center and make a big Washington commodity meals for all the families that that

Scott Cowan [01:04:58]:

I love that.

Chris Voigt [01:04:58]:

Participate in Head Start. So, yeah, we had Washington, wheat tortillas and and Washington beef carnitas, and, we got, asparagus and ice cream and milk and, of course, potatoes and apples. And so it was really neat to have, all those Khmer groups come together and and kinda celebrating the end of my diet and sharing a meal with, you know, the people that are doing this for.

Scott Cowan [01:05:22]:

Would you do it again?

Chris Voigt [01:05:29]:

I mean, I I don’t know if it would make a difference.

Scott Cowan [01:05:31]:

No. But would I’m asking, would you do it again? Would

Chris Voigt [01:05:34]:

So here here we actually, I I proposed to my commissioners to kinda take it up a notch. Take it to the next level.

Scott Cowan [01:05:39]:

Okay.

Chris Voigt [01:05:41]:

And how I wanted what I wanted to do was essentially repeat it, but really put potato nutrition to the test. Because when I when I did it the first time, I was just, you know, working in my desk, you know, not doing anything. And then, like, now what what if what if I was to ride my bike across The United States Oh. Powered by potatoes Powered by potatoes. Only eating only potatoes. Okay. You know? And I thought that would be kind of taking this diet to the next level to really prove, how nutritious a potato weighs. I mean, because yeah.

Chris Voigt [01:06:13]:

Okay. Maybe a guy can, eat potatoes and get healthier.

Scott Cowan [01:06:17]:

Mhmm.

Chris Voigt [01:06:17]:

But what if he put it to the test? You know, like an endurance type athlete. Could you get across the country and still be healthy and full of energy, at the end of a bike ride, you know, riding your bike 300 3,000 miles? So Well,

Scott Cowan [01:06:32]:

what you could do, I’m just throwing this out as possible idea for you, is you could have the fry truck, your fry trailer, follow you, and and you could have fries all the time. So now you meant Well,

Chris Voigt [01:06:42]:

that would be the intent. Actually, we would you gotta have a support team that would No. No. Pair meals, whether you’re steaming potatoes for me or making fresh fries. No. One

Scott Cowan [01:06:50]:

of the things you know, you were interviewed by the Cascade Bicycle Club, and you’re gonna do the STP this year. Correct?

Chris Voigt [01:06:58]:

Yeah. I hope so.

Scott Cowan [01:06:59]:

And this will be your third year?

Chris Voigt [01:07:01]:

Third year.

Scott Cowan [01:07:01]:

Third year. Okay. And Washington State Potato Commission has a french fry trailer that you park at kind of the halfway point down central area, and you provide french fries for the participants. Yeah. That’s very cool.

Chris Voigt [01:07:16]:

And I love it. It’s a long line. People just really appreciate it and are just so thankful Yeah. To get that. So

Scott Cowan [01:07:22]:

Where else do you guys take that? Where else does it go? Like, because I wanna show up. That’s kinda why I’m I’m I’m selfish. I I’m looking at it like, where are you gonna be next? But

Chris Voigt [01:07:32]:

You know, we we’re we’ve just been kind of talking about actually, we’ve talked about this that, this morning because we used to do just kind of random pop up. I think the first time that we did it, you know, we would just show up you know, I think we would do, like, social media contest to say, hey, you know, where should we go?

Scott Cowan [01:07:49]:

Right.

Chris Voigt [01:07:50]:

And kinda leave it up to people. And and and I remember we’ve popped up at, you know, different, like, fire stations around the state, you know, just randomly or show up in parks, and, you know, let people know, hey. You know, we’re gonna be in Bellingham today at, you know, Station 32 Fire Station. You know, come get your French fries. And so we did a a little bit of that. And, yeah. It’s kind of gotten, that was fun doing it. It really was.

Chris Voigt [01:08:17]:

And and I I I kinda wanna restart that again, but, we just we’re we’re kinda short on staff right now, and so it it would be hard to be able to Okay. Kinda staff that anymore. So But we’ll be there definitely for

Scott Cowan [01:08:31]:

The STP. For STP. What’s the longest you’re ridden a bike? What’s the I mean, are you gonna do the STP in one day or two?

Chris Voigt [01:08:38]:

Two days. So I I kind of opened it up to, like, some potato friends.

Scott Cowan [01:08:42]:

Okay.

Chris Voigt [01:08:43]:

And so a lot of them have never done this type of thing. So I wanna, do it in two days. And I’ve always done it in two days, but I’d really like to try to do it in in one day. I think I think my longest bike ride, well, it was probably I think the I rode I rode, I rode home from a potato meeting. I had a potato meeting in Walla Walla.

Scott Cowan [01:09:07]:

Okay.

Chris Voigt [01:09:08]:

And I rode back to to Moses Lake and it was a 25 miles. Okay. So I think that’s That’s

Scott Cowan [01:09:13]:

the longest? Okay.

Chris Voigt [01:09:14]:

The longest. And I didn’t really train for it. Oh. So I was kinda feeling it the next day. Yeah. That’d be And towards the end of it. And, oh, man, this is the worst thing ever in my life happened to me on that ride. So I left Walla Walla, and you kinda go from as you head west out of I had you gotta leave west, head out of west out of Walla Walla towards the Tri Cities, and then you turn north up to Moses Lake.

Chris Voigt [01:09:37]:

Mhmm. And you gotta kinda go up some hills. Mhmm. And I’m going up the hill, and the wind is blowing. I’ve got this, like, 20 mile an hour headwind into me. And, you know, your body is just like the sail and it just slows you down and it it riding a bike in in a headwind is like the worst thing in the world. And so I’m just crawling up this hill. You know, it’s a hill, so it’s already going slow.

Chris Voigt [01:09:59]:

And then I got this wind beating down on me. I feel like I’m just not making any progress. And out of nowhere by a % coincidence, there’s this I don’t the Idaho Potato Commission has this gigantic potato that they haul around on a semi truck for their promotional events.

Scott Cowan [01:10:16]:

Okay.

Chris Voigt [01:10:17]:

It literally passed me driving up this film. So here I am, the Washington potato guy getting passed by this Idaho Potato Commission semi truck with a big potato on it. It was the most humiliating thing I’ve ever had.

Scott Cowan [01:10:30]:

To laugh at your pain, but I’m gonna laugh fast. That’s awesome. Alright. So when you’re not helping promote potatoes in Washington, what do you what do you like to do for fun? What’s what’s kind of fun in the Moses Lake area? What do you like to do out there?

Chris Voigt [01:10:49]:

Really anything outdoors. Okay. I I was in a I know it’s kinda weird to say this out loud that, for my fiftieth birthday, I got a skateboard. Okay. My wife gave me a skateboard, and I think she also increased my insurance policy. But, yeah, I was in the I was a 50 year old skateboarder for, a while. And then I had one bad I think I I think I broke my wrist three separate times in a year, and so now I’ve kinda backed up.

Scott Cowan [01:11:17]:

Have you ever been to Maryhill down in the gorge? Yeah. Have you ever done have you ever skateboarded down their hill?

Chris Voigt [01:11:25]:

Do people do that?

Scott Cowan [01:11:27]:

Yes.

Chris Voigt [01:11:28]:

I would keep it.

Scott Cowan [01:11:29]:

Yes. I interviewed I interviewed this this husband and wife who own a a coffee company, and he’s a longboard rider. And he’s probably about our age, you know, not a young guy. Right?

Chris Voigt [01:11:43]:

Uh-huh.

Scott Cowan [01:11:44]:

And he rides a longboard, and and so they gather there. These are competitions and events.

Chris Voigt [01:11:50]:

Oh, Oh, I didn’t know that.

Scott Cowan [01:11:51]:

And they and they ride down that hill. And his daughters, they do, I’ll say, like, a luge. They they they sit down and ride down this thing.

Chris Voigt [01:12:02]:

So Oh my gosh.

Scott Cowan [01:12:03]:

So, you know, you should should go try that. I mean, they’re wearing full leathers and, I mean, you know, it’s

Chris Voigt [01:12:08]:

We we can’t I can’t now I can’t have my wife listen to this podcast because,

Scott Cowan [01:12:12]:

I don’t know. Exist. I just made it all up.

Chris Voigt [01:12:14]:

It’s okay. She’ll she’ll blackball me from

Scott Cowan [01:12:17]:

No. I mean, it was like

Chris Voigt [01:12:19]:

he That would

Scott Cowan [01:12:19]:

be fine. He’s he’s wiped out a few times and, you know, there’s yeah. Anyway, it’s so skateboarding. Alright. I mean, I’m not coordinated enough. I can’t ride. I would I would just be in traction and, you know, I’d be that body in full body cast, like, almost instantly.

Chris Voigt [01:12:35]:

I’ve I was in the cast three times in

Scott Cowan [01:12:37]:

here. Oh my gosh. Alright.

Chris Voigt [01:12:38]:

You know, we’re we’re not our house isn’t on the lake, but it’s across the road from the lake. And, so we, we don’t have a boat. And then and my kids my kids felt like they had just, an impoverished childhood growing up because we didn’t have a boat, and we lived near the lake.

Scott Cowan [01:12:55]:

Right.

Chris Voigt [01:12:55]:

And they didn’t have a dog or a trampoline.

Scott Cowan [01:12:57]:

Oh. So And and

Chris Voigt [01:12:59]:

But we kayak. And so, actually, I’ll I’ll kayak to work occasionally. So our office isn’t too far from the lake either, so I’ll jump in the kayak. And it’s about a it’s about a two mile kayak.

Scott Cowan [01:13:09]:

Yeah. You’re you’re the first guest to say that they’ve kayaked work, so that’s kinda cool. So good. That’s very cool.

Chris Voigt [01:13:14]:

Yeah. So, yeah, the lake is is fun. We got sand dunes now. I I, my wife won’t let me get me a dirt won’t let me get a dirt bike either, but, we’ve actually have, some really nice sand dunes. Actually, they’re probably really popular for anybody who’s kinda does the off road thing.

Scott Cowan [01:13:32]:

You know?

Chris Voigt [01:13:32]:

It seems like most people at our sand dunes are from the West Side or Seattle area. So that’s really popular. And actually, I think NASA was like testing. You know, they were testing, like, their rovers Really? Out out in the sand dunes because it was kind of mimicking Mars and so forth. I I love I love fly fishing.

Scott Cowan [01:13:52]:

Okay.

Chris Voigt [01:13:52]:

Is is

Scott Cowan [01:13:53]:

So where do you like to go fly fishing?

Chris Voigt [01:13:56]:

There’s a, Rocky Ford. There’s a creek. There’s kind of a small stream, that comes into Moses Lake, and there’s a fish hatchery there. And so, that’s always fun to go, and fly fish there. Just have a blast, doing that. Have you gone to? I mean, that, like, I love getting up in the mountains too, but it’s so easy. Just, you know, at the end, it’s almost just like I can pop in there and get some fly fishing out. Have you

Scott Cowan [01:14:19]:

done the Yakima? Have you fly fished the Yakima River?

Chris Voigt [01:14:22]:

Yeah. Yeah.

Scott Cowan [01:14:23]:

I’ve heard that. That’s So

Chris Voigt [01:14:24]:

that’s that’s wonderful.

Scott Cowan [01:14:25]:

Wonderful. Yeah.

Chris Voigt [01:14:25]:

Got a cataract that I’ll I’ll take on the Yakima so I can kind of paddle my way and do a little bit of fishing as I do that. Okay. That’s a lot of fun.

Scott Cowan [01:14:32]:

So most important question of the of the whole conversation is where’s a great place to get coffee in Moses Lake? Because that’s that’s that’s what I’m about.

Chris Voigt [01:14:39]:

Yeah. Yeah. There’s there’s lots of really good places. Okay. But I would say my favorite, there’s a place called Mason’s Coffee in Moses Lake. No way. Have you really?

Scott Cowan [01:14:50]:

Mason’s. Yeah. I I wrote a I think I told you. I did a a hundred cups of coffee in a hundred days.

Chris Voigt [01:14:56]:

Oh, yeah.

Scott Cowan [01:14:57]:

And, Mason’s was, one of them I went to.

Chris Voigt [01:14:59]:

I just I just kind of like, like, I know the people who own the building, actually. They’re they’re kinda connected to the potato industry, and they they lease out to different, folks.

Scott Cowan [01:15:10]:

Okay.

Chris Voigt [01:15:12]:

They just needed some office space. It was actually like an old Sears building, I think.

Scott Cowan [01:15:16]:

That would make sense. Yeah. I’m thinking about it.

Chris Voigt [01:15:17]:

Yeah. So I I think they got a good deal on it, and then they renovated it and created, you know, different areas for different shops. And they’re very generous people. They give, you know, several nonprofits, office space, and so forth in there. But, yeah, Mason’s is just kind of a quiet little place. And, just the people are really kind, and and it’s kinda divided in half. You can kind of sit where, you know, where the coffee machine is, or you can kinda walk across the hallway and there’s kind of a little more

Scott Cowan [01:15:43]:

The sitting area.

Chris Voigt [01:15:43]:

Area. So it’s kind of nice. I I like getting out of the office once in a while and kind of, working away from you know, just even sometimes a couple hours Mhmm. If I can get away from sort of the interruptions and go to a place like Mason’s and hook up to their wifi and get some work done. I love that.

Scott Cowan [01:16:01]:

Which And

Chris Voigt [01:16:01]:

I love, you know, and they do a really good job creating the crema on my American.

Scott Cowan [01:16:04]:

Is so is American the the go to for you?

Chris Voigt [01:16:07]:

Yeah. That’s my go to. I don’t I don’t believe in any cream or any additives to it. I just like pure coffee.

Scott Cowan [01:16:13]:

Oh, okay.

Chris Voigt [01:16:15]:

And the crema off of, an espresso machine.

Scott Cowan [01:16:17]:

There we go.

Chris Voigt [01:16:19]:

And I gotta admit, we we’ve got we’ve got a nice little, espresso machine in our home, and so I I, you know, I’ll have a a couple Americanos in the morning right away.

Scott Cowan [01:16:28]:

There we go. Lunchtime in Moses Lake. Where where should I go for lunch?

Chris Voigt [01:16:33]:

Oh, you know, there’s an Indian restaurant I haven’t tried yet, and I’ve been meaning to do that. It kinda depends on what your mood is. Now we have, there’s a place called Michael’s Bistro.

Scott Cowan [01:16:45]:

Been there.

Chris Voigt [01:16:46]:

That’s kind of nice. I like that. They got a nice outdoor patio. They got a really good beer wall. I don’t know if they had the beer wall when you were there.

Scott Cowan [01:16:54]:

Think so.

Chris Voigt [01:16:55]:

And you can kinda buy it by the ounce, you know, just sample.

Scott Cowan [01:16:57]:

I like that idea. Okay.

Chris Voigt [01:16:59]:

20 or 30 different beers. I can’t remember how many I got. That’s kind of a fun place to go to, but there there is this die I’ll call it a dive bar, although I might be offending Oh. Ram, the guy who owns it. But there’s a place called Ram’s Ripple. We call it the Ripple.

Scott Cowan [01:17:16]:

Okay.

Chris Voigt [01:17:16]:

And it’s this tavern, but they got the best darn fried chicken. Oh. You know, it is just so good. So either, it’s funny because I’ll I’ll go there with my pastor. You know, I’ll take him to a dive bar and eat eat chicken. And I love that. And so it’s just great

Scott Cowan [01:17:36]:

food and I think we got the beginning as a joke. A potato guy and a pastor walk into a bar.

Chris Voigt [01:17:40]:

I I don’t know. I don’t I don’t

Scott Cowan [01:17:42]:

know where we go from there, but okay.

Chris Voigt [01:17:44]:

I know. We should work on that one.

Scott Cowan [01:17:45]:

So so you mentioned they have great fried chicken. Do they do JoJo’s?

Chris Voigt [01:17:49]:

Yeah. Yeah. Great JoJo’s to go along with the fried chicken. Yeah. Really good. And they got you know, I mean, you can have French fries also or tater tots. But, yeah, they do really good job on all the data products.

Scott Cowan [01:17:59]:

Alright. As we wind this thing down, is there anything well, I got one more one more. So what’s on the what’s what’s the near future look like for the Washington Potato Commission? What do you guys what do you kinda see the future of potatoes in Washington over the next, you know, five years?

Chris Voigt [01:18:16]:

You know, that I wish I was a crystal ball and I could tell you because, actually, we are in a period of such uncertainty for multiple reasons. One is, you know, the whole, government deal. Right. You know, there’s a, firing or laying off of,

Scott Cowan [01:18:36]:

Yeah.

Chris Voigt [01:18:36]:

Certain government personnel that we rely upon, particularly when it comes to research. You know, we still have industry problems, research things that we need to figure out, and, you know, we’ve lost some of those resources. And then the strangest thing happened. You know, our our dominance has always been the Pacific Rim. So we, you know, a lot of potato processors are located in Washington because, that’s our easy access to the deep water ports of Seattle and Tacoma. And so, in good freight, you know, maritime freight service out of there to the Pacific Rim. And so, you know, like I said, we’ve exported 70% of what we grew to the Pacific Rim. But just in the last two years, China and India have literally come out of nowhere and had really putting a lot of pressure on us.

Chris Voigt [01:19:26]:

They’ve just ramped up their potato production, ramped up their, French fry production, and are now really giving us a serious run for the money, in the Pacific Rim. And so we’re trying to, you know, trying to figure all that out. I mean, their quality isn’t quite the quality that we have, but they are taking a lot of that sort of what we call lower tier business away. Mhmm. You know, Philippines has been a really nice market, for example, for us, but it’s a very low cost market. I mean, there’s still a lot of, you know, kind of poverty Right. In The Philippines, and so they’re looking for really cost effective products. And so, yeah, China and India have really kind of taken that away from us, and so our experts are are going down.

Chris Voigt [01:20:09]:

And so and then the whole tariff thing, you know, how are we gonna be affected by that? You know, there’s a lot of uncertainty on that. You know, we we’re sort of in that pause phase, but once that pause is lifted, you know, there are a lot of countries that could impose retaliatory tariffs on us, which again would further erode our opportunities to export. Yeah. So there’s just kind of a lot of uncertainty. So, actually, we’re at the lowest potato acreage, that we’ve been at in over, I don’t know, twenty five years.

Scott Cowan [01:20:41]:

Okay.

Chris Voigt [01:20:43]:

We we’re we were always we have been capped out at a 65,000 acres of potatoes. That’s the most that we can grow, because for every acre of potatoes you grow, you actually have to set aside three acres on the side for rotation crops because you can’t plant potatoes after potatoes on the same piece of ground. It’ll just build up too many disease pressures and funguses or or and so forth in the soil, and so you gotta rotate. And so there’s only roughly so a 65,000 times four. So there’s roughly you know, so we’ve got about 660,000 acres that are tied up, but we can only use a quarter of it at a

Scott Cowan [01:21:18]:

time. Right.

Chris Voigt [01:21:20]:

And so there really wasn’t an opportunity for us to expand anymore unless somehow, you know, we were able to get more water out of the Columbia River, to, land that currently isn’t irrigated right now. That was really our only opportunity to expand. So, really, for the last ten years, we’ve had to tell all of our international customers, hey. We we’re gonna put you on quota. We can’t meet your demand.

Scott Cowan [01:21:42]:

Wow.

Chris Voigt [01:21:43]:

Wow. Because we’re maxed out. Well, that day is gone now with China and India kind of stepping in and filling that gap. And and The US and also what kind of contributed to that too is The US stopped signing free trade agreements.

Scott Cowan [01:21:57]:

Mhmm.

Chris Voigt [01:21:57]:

You know, probably, well, eight eight years ago. And, but our competitors have signed them. And so, you know, Australia grows potatoes, New Zealand grows potatoes, Canada grows potatoes, EU grows potatoes. Wow. And now they’re all in also in the Pacific Rim, because their product is cheaper because they’re at zero tariffs, and and we still have tariffs in a lot of the countries. So Yeah. And so we’re still trying to figure out, you know, how how are we gonna adapt this new environment? Now there are some opportunities. So, for example, Japan, we can sell French fries to Japan.

Chris Voigt [01:22:33]:

We can sell fresh potatoes to just two chip potato chip manufacturers in Japan, but we can’t sell any other fresh potatoes to the grocery store or restaurants. And so, you know, I think this and we’ve been struggling. We’ve been trying. We’ve asked for access of our fresh potatoes in Japan. I think we approached Japan, like, twenty years ago, and they just stall, stall, stall, stall, stall, you know, and they’re just not being responsive to our request. And so this whole tariff thing is actually gives us a little bit more leverage

Scott Cowan [01:23:08]:

Mhmm. Or

Chris Voigt [01:23:08]:

the administration has a little leverage now. So Japan wants to continue, you know, exporting their products here, so maybe now they’ll in exchange, you know, from them to continue to export our country, maybe it’ll open up the market for fresh potatoes in Japan, and that would be huge. So that would make up for, you know, a big a lot of losses that we’re experiencing in the other countries. So yeah. It’s a we don’t know what we are right now. So that’s kind of the the sense of uncertainty. And because generally, potato growers are always optimistic in the spring. And even if they had a bad year the previous year, it’s like, okay.

Chris Voigt [01:23:42]:

We’re starting fresh. New year, I’m optimistic. But this year, there’s just that sense of uncertainty that’s really kind of hanging over all of us, just because we’re experiencing things we’ve never experienced before and will there be any resolution.

Scott Cowan [01:23:56]:

So Got it. Alright. This is So I don’t

Chris Voigt [01:24:00]:

yeah. It’s kind of a bummer. I don’t wanna finish my calendar.

Scott Cowan [01:24:02]:

I got I got one last question that you you promised me. I didn’t tell you what it was, but you promised me you would answer it. Remember this. Man. Okay. So I’m gonna hold you to this.

Chris Voigt [01:24:09]:

Alright.

Scott Cowan [01:24:09]:

Alright. This is a very important question. It’s a simple question, but I need to know your answer, and I need to know the reason. K? K. Cake or pie?

Chris Voigt [01:24:21]:

Cake. White cake, white frosting.

Scott Cowan [01:24:23]:

Wine.

Chris Voigt [01:24:26]:

Man, I don’t know. I have just been a fan, and it’s like nobody in our office really is a big fan of white cake, white frosting. So we’re like, we always do cakes for birthdays here in the office. And and but thankfully, we we hired someone recently in the last six months who also likes white cake white frosting. And it doesn’t have and I don’t like the fancy way. I mean, I like the, you know, where you do, you know, you get your cake from the the grocery store, you know, bakery. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy. But, man, I don’t know.

Chris Voigt [01:24:55]:

There’s just something about that. Maybe it’s I don’t know. Like the wedding, you know, the old traditional wedding cakes. I don’t think they do those types of cakes for weddings anymore, but it used to be that way. And that’s the cake I love. Okay. But ironically, like, I hope my mother-in-law doesn’t listen to this podcast too because she is convinced that I love pie. Like, pie more than anything.

Chris Voigt [01:25:15]:

Really? And I don’t know where she got that because I think when she we were living in Colorado one time, I was eating a piece of pie and she visited and all of a sudden was convinced that I I just love pie. And so she’s always making pies. And I take them, but I’m not a pie fan. I want I I want white cake white frosting.

Scott Cowan [01:25:35]:

I I’m laughing because it’s alright. I’m an only child, and I’m also an only grandchild. So I have a really small family. Right? And every year at Thanksgiving, my grandmother my on my mother’s side, that was where my mother was an only child as well. So my grandmother would cook Thanksgiving dinner. And every year, Scott, would you like a slice of pumpkin pie? I I no. As a young I I don’t like pumpkin pie. It’s like, I no.

Scott Cowan [01:26:02]:

And, you know, I just remember her every year would go, since when? And I was like, forever? Anyway, so it’s like, you know, sometimes people just forget things. So, you know, maybe maybe that’s what’s going on there. She just, you know, I don’t know. My grandmother just couldn’t remember. And it kind of I don’t know if she was joking with me, you know, as I grew up and and this became a joke that she was just pulling my chain. I don’t know. But I really do think that she just completely forgot that I I’m not a fan of pumpkin in almost any format. So,

Chris Voigt [01:26:33]:

that’s not what it is. So That reminded me of my potato diet, actually. And this proves how I’m not a smart man because I could have started this diet anytime I wanted to. I started October 1. Oh. So if you go October 1 and go out sixty days, speaking of pumpkin pie, for Thanksgiving, I had to eat only potatoes. So I I cooked up like five I think I made a big old pot of mashed potatoes, but at that time it was Yukon Gold potatoes, shaped it into the form of a turkey, put a little oil on it, brushed, you know, and put it under the broiler.

Scott Cowan [01:27:08]:

Under the brown

Chris Voigt [01:27:09]:

Browned up actually pretty nice. But I also made, I got mashed potatoes, put it in a pie pan, orange food coloring with the pumpkin pie seasonings. And then, added, just the the yellow Yukon as a crust on it, on the top of it. And it was awful. Oh, lord. Pumpkin pie seasoning and mashed potatoes don’t go together whatsoever. But the turkey, the mashed potato turkey, that was the most tender turkey I’ve ever had in my life. So thanks for bringing up pumpkin pie.

Scott Cowan [01:27:39]:

Oh, Chris, thank you for sitting down with me too. This is really I I was talking to a couple of my friends about it. I’m gonna be interviewed the guy the guy for the potato commission. They’re like, what? You know, it’s just it was just this what? And I go, no. This is gonna be fun. I just know it’s gonna be a good time. And it has proven to be you know, you you tell great stories, and I learned more about potatoes and and Washington Ag in general. And I think that’s that’s for me, I get to learn something so I’m happy.

Scott Cowan [01:28:07]:

And I I hope that you have a successful STP ride and that, the fry truck sells out. Well, now I don’t want to sell out. I want you guys to, like, serve every rider and then be have nothing to bring back. Like, you just you you nailed the the quantities perfectly. And I’m gonna I’m gonna keep following and find out where where I can find the truck. But one thing we didn’t talk about, and I’m sorry that this is at the end, and I’m gonna somehow put a blurb so people listen to the end. That’s kinda selfish of me. But, anyway, you guys, the Washington potatoes, and I love your URL, potatoes.com, Have a bunch of recipes.

Scott Cowan [01:28:44]:

What’s this TV thing going that you’ve got?

Chris Voigt [01:28:47]:

Oh, yeah. Washington Grown, our our TV program. Yeah. There was a a time I think we did a long range planning meeting, man, maybe fourteen years ago, and, it was weird, but our grower said, hey, we’re really worried about the consumer just not understanding where their food comes from anymore. So let’s let’s actually pause promoting potatoes Mhmm. Which was weird for a potato grower to tell us that, because that’s, you know, one of the things that we do. And they said, let’s just really kinda promote telling the ag story to the public Mhmm. So everybody gets an idea of where their food comes from.

Chris Voigt [01:29:22]:

And so, you know, we were planning on just making some sort of farming videos and, you know, posting it on YouTube or or Facebook or whatever. And as we talked to our production company, they said, well, for the amount of work you guys want, what would you think of a TV show? Or like, like a potato TV show? I mean, who’s gonna watch that? We don’t know. We could open up to, you know, other agriculture and so forth. And so that was the the birth of Washington Grown. So now, you can catch it literally throughout all of the states. So it’s literally, it’s it’s a it’s a food and agriculture show. So we always start every episode, like, sitting, you know, some restaurant, maybe one of Tom Douglas’s restaurant in Seattle. Maybe he’s making potato dish, teaches you how to do that, and then we go to the potato farm.

Chris Voigt [01:30:04]:

You know, we’ll interview the potato farmer, talk about, you know, what it took to to grow that crop, and then maybe we’ll meet with an extension agent and then talk about, you know, one of the pests that potato farmers have to deal with. And then we’ll go to a food truck that’s doing something really cool with potatoes. And then we might talk to a nutritionist, talk about nutrition of potato. But we do this for every crop. And so we’ll do grapes and asparagus and apples Right. And pears. And and it’s been a fun and so we’re working with all the ad groups in the state. And it’s been great.

Chris Voigt [01:30:32]:

And, you know, not that we were ever out trying to win awards, but the awards are, I think, are really a reflection of the quality of the storytelling. And so we’ve actually, last, last year, we won our fourth Emmy award. And so we’re we’re pretty happy about that.

Scott Cowan [01:30:47]:

That’s that’s fantastic.

Chris Voigt [01:30:49]:

Yeah. So, yeah. I think you can catch it, I think KIRO in the Seattle area, and then also on PBS. And it’s actually I think we’re the only TV station that you can find both on commercial TV and public television.

Scott Cowan [01:31:00]:

Right.

Chris Voigt [01:31:01]:

Which is kind of unusual. And I think, again, that talks about the quality of the programming. But literally throughout the state, you can see it everywhere except Vancouver, because they’re served by the Portland market, TV market. And the the Portland TV stations didn’t wanna show a Washington grown show in in Oregon. So, but they can catch it online. Wagrown.com. You can catch it there, and we’ve also got our Washington Grown, YouTube channel.

Scott Cowan [01:31:26]:

Alright. I had one last question. This is my own personal question for you. Okay?

Chris Voigt [01:31:33]:

Alright. Fire away.

Scott Cowan [01:31:34]:

Potato chips.

Chris Voigt [01:31:36]:

Yes.

Scott Cowan [01:31:37]:

What’s your favorite type of potato chip? Are you a Ridge chip guy? Or are you a

Chris Voigt [01:31:41]:

Yes. Definitely a ridge chip. Wow. I man, I I I like the texture Okay. Of a ridge. And I and I’m I just like that. I like, it’s kinda crunchy, but it’s sorta kinda softish a little bit depending on what would you get. And I I just like that.

Chris Voigt [01:31:58]:

I like I know. Like, my family loves kettle. Kettle fried chips. I’m not a I’m it’s not me. I mean, I’ll I’ll eat it, of course. They’re great, but I would prefer to have a ridge. And I am I’m a plain chip guy. I’m not big into a lot of the flavors, essentially.

Chris Voigt [01:32:15]:

Unless I go to Canada, then I always get the, the all dressed, I think, seasoning that they put on there.

Scott Cowan [01:32:20]:

Okay. Alright.

Chris Voigt [01:32:22]:

How about how about you, Scott? What’s your question?

Scott Cowan [01:32:25]:

You know, know, I was afraid you were gonna ask me that because I’m kind of waffling. No no pun intended there. I think I’m a ridge chip guy too. And I and I most of the time, I do prefer, just plain, you know, salted sea salt. I like them with sea salt. Oh, yeah. And but, you know, like, things like jalapeño or, you know, there’s always these joke bags. Lay’s tries to come out with, like, the you know, I’m not sure what they were thinking.

Scott Cowan [01:32:55]:

Let’s see if they’ll eat this. And, you know, no. But, yeah, I’m probably just a a ridged, plain, old chip. They’re

Chris Voigt [01:33:07]:

love. And and they’re sturdy enough for dish. Yeah.

Scott Cowan [01:33:10]:

They’re sturdy enough. Yep. Absolutely. So I

Chris Voigt [01:33:11]:

appreciate that.

Scott Cowan [01:33:12]:

Well, Chris, thank you so much for your time today. I really enjoyed this, and, I wish you and all of our Washington growers success.

Chris Voigt [01:33:21]:

Great. Thank you so much.had a blast. So maybe maybe we can do this again when I ride my bike across The United States, eating only potatoes.

Scott Cowan [01:33:28]:

I would like to be on the support team if it’s got the fry truck. I’m just putting that out there. You said you were short staffed. I I might, you know anyhow.

Chris Voigt [01:33:36]:

Deal. Alright. Deal. Alright. Thanks, Scott.