There are few symbols that are more representative of America than the potato chip. It’s a glorious and crunchy, albeit not very healthy, snack that’s a staple at parties and pantries. But potatoes are struggling to grow in some parts of the U.S., and we all may be paying a higher price for it.
The potato problem. Experts have been looking at the potato, which provides nutritional value for more than a billion people globally, with concern for a few years now. The crop is one of the most vulnerable to changing climates such as extreme heat and drought.
Heat is one of the biggest concerns, especially given that the potato is a crop that needs a cool climate to thrive.
"Potatoes are a cool-climate crop," Lesley Torrance, a biology professor and fellow at the James Hutton Institute, said in an interview with the BBC. "And of course climate change predictions are that we're going to have hotter and drier summers. So that's a big problem."
The role of weather. According to the James Hutton Institute, when temperatures reach 77 degrees Fahrenheit, potatoes stop focusing on growing and instead decide themselves to combatting heat. This reduces yields.
States like Pennsylvania, which has the most potato chip makers of any state in the U.S., know the feeling. Marketplace reports that in the 1980s, there were 35 nights a year in Erie, a city on the south shore of Lake Erie, that were too hot for potatoes to grow. Today, there are roughly 50 nights a year where the temperatures are too hot.
However, heat doesn’t just affect yields. Potatoes stop growing completely in soil that maintains a temperature of 85 degrees Fahrenheit.
"The crop is sensitive to weather conditions," Bob Leiby, an agronomist with the Pennsylvania Co-Operative Potato Growers, told the outlet. He added: "It’s easy to get soil temperatures way up out of the range that tubers will even continue to grow."
Potatoes in numbers. The U.S. is the fourth largest producer of potatoes worldwide, according to Statista, with Idaho and Washington topping the list of potato-producing states.
As far as chips go, the U.S. used 57.76 million cwt of potatoes for chips and shoestring fries in 2023 out of a total production of 441 million cwt, or about 13%.
A field of potatoes.
How potato farming affects your wallet. Producing potatoes isn’t the only thing that’s important, though. Where they’re produced also matters, particularly to your wallet.
As noted by Marketplace, the average price of a 16-ounce bag of chips was $4.50 a decade ago. Today, that same bag costs about $6.50. There are many reasons for the increase, but one of them is location. Potato chip producers like to source potatoes from nearby because it cuts down on transportation costs—which are impacted by the rising cost of fuel—but that’s harder to do when farmers struggle to grow the crop locally.
The potential solution: a new potato. America isn’t the only country with problems on the potato horizon. The UK is facing them too, and researchers are looking for a solution in a familiar place: a potato.
Well, a different type, that is. Torrance, the fellow at the James Hutton Institute, explained that scientists need to develop a new variety of potato resistant to heat, drought, pests, and disease.
“We need to develop new varieties in time for the huge problems coming along the line with hotter weather and droughts which pose an existential threat to the industry,” Torrance said.
Image | Leonard J Matthews | Hindrik Sijens
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