FEEDING THE WORLD

Afarm girl from Barnesville, Dr. Asunta (Susie) Thompson, came to North Dakota State University as an agronomy major with the goal of helping to feed the world. Now a few decades later, that’s exactly what she is doing. She leads one of 13 potato breeding programs in the country (including state, federal, and one private organization) and is “living her dream” at NDSU.

“I love what I do,” Thompson said. “I get to work in the greenhouse, the lab, teach, work with colleagues, and be outside in the field — I get it all.” At NDSU, her role is to develop new potato cultivars (or varieties) that will meet the needs of producers and growers in the region, with higher quality potatoes that provide producers and industry more profit potential, and consumers a healthier product.

Potatoes are the most important vegetable and horticultural crop grown in North Dakota, Thompson said, with more than 22 million cwt. (hundredweight) harvested in 2010. Next door in Minnesota, South Dakota, and Manitoba, growers are also eager to try out new NDSU varieties. Farmers in the region produce for three distinct markets: chipping potatoes for Barrel O’ Fun, Old Dutch, and Frito Lay; the fresh “table” market; and french fry varieties for the processing plants of Cavendish Farms, JR Simplot, and LambWeston.

“This is a very creative growing region,” Thompson said, “because we have all three markets that we’re trying to support. We strive to develop cultivars that are naturally (genetically) resistant to potato diseases and insects, are nutritionally superior and delicious, and meet processors’ specific needs.”

NDSU has been involved in potato research since the late 1800s, and Thompson is the latest in a collection of exceptional breeders to oversee the breeding program, which began in about 1930. NDSU has released 24 varieties, including four during Thompson’s tenure.

One of the primary goals of the NDSU program is to enhance the germplasm — the genetic resources — for potatoes. “Bryce Farnsworth is an NDSU colleague who’s been involved in potato breeding since 1967,” she noted. “He has a great understanding of our germplasm history, which is essential in the breeding process.”

Actually developing a named cultivar takes years of effort. In addition to carefully selected varieties, Thompson will also cross with several wild species that offer useful characteristics and are adapted to northern conditions. Preparation for spring planting is done throughout the winter in the greenhouse, where parents are crossed, and seed tubers evaluated for the presence of disease. The best selections are planted in the field.

From the true potato seed, (the result of crossing parent plants), selected seedling families are taken to the seedling nursery at the Langdon Research Extension Center and planted. This year, Thompson’s team planted 618 “families” of potatoes, each averaging about 300 individual plants. More than 80,000 single hills of potatoes were planted, which all needed evaluation. From that start, only about 1,000 seedlings will be brought back for storage and evaluation this fall. Over the next decade, these potatoes will be planted in irrigated and non-irrigated plots throughout the region. Careful scrutiny throughout the growing season, and extensive testing of each potato selection, will be done to see it if meets the stringent criteria of growers and processors.

Around year seven, a selection may make it to the North Central Regional Potato Variety Trial, where it will be further evaluated at seven regional locations in Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin. Thompson estimates that after 10 to 15 years, one out of one million seedlings becomes a named cultivar. Dakota Trailblazer is the most recent release, a beauty that is the first from the NDSU program that is suitable for making high quality french fries and frozen products. She has high hopes for ND8068-5Russ, which is showing

Susie’s Favorite Fries:

Preheat oven to 400°

Clean and cut potato into 3/8” strips

Place cut potato fries into plastic bag

Drizzle with favorite olive oil and seasonings

Shake to coat promise and is extremely early, but hasn’t been named as yet.

Put coated fries onto baking sheet in a single layer, and bake for 50 to 60 minutes or until golden brown on outside, and cooked on the inside. Turn fries after the first 30 minutes to brown evenly.

Serve hot.

“There are many advancing selections that we’re evaluating,” she said, “including ones with great colors — buff colored with purple splashes, bright yellow inside. Another is more mulberry or fuschia. European cultivars are primarily all yellow fleshed, while the U.S. markets prefer white.”

“I get to work with wonderfully fabulous people from all over the world, including world-renown potato pathologists Dr. Neil Gudmestad and Dr. Gary Secor right here at NDSU,” Thompson said. “Plus the growers are cool people — they help us so much.”

When she is not occupied as the “nomad farmer” racing from potato plot to plot around the state, Thompson enjoys time with her five children and one precious grandson. “I run, write poetry even while I’m harvesting, love to read old westerns, garden, and I cook a lot of potatoes, both to test and because I like them,” she laughed.

Whether in the field, testing in the lab, or cooking at home, Thompson is making an impact: she is truly helping to feed the world.

[AWM]