Capital Press

Idaho Gov. Butch Otter appointed Brett Jensen and Todd Cornelison to the Idaho Potato Commission, effective at the nine-member panel’s Oct. 24 meeting. Otter also reappointed Dan Nakamura.

Jensen succeeds James Hoff as a grower-member. Cornelison succeeds Lynn Wilcox as a fresh-pack shipper. Hoff completed one three-year term, Wilcox two.

Industry peers nominate and the governor selects commission members. The commission must include five growers, two fresh-pack shippers and two processors. Commissioners are limited to two terms. Appointees to the Potato Commission do not require Senate confirmation, said Skyler Kjellander, a staff assistant in Otter’s office.

Jensen owns Brett Jensen Farms, a 13,000-acre operation in the Idaho Falls-Hamer area. The farm grows potatoes for the fresh and processing markets.

“I am excited to join the commission, learn, and see if I can help the Idaho potato industry,” Jensen said. “I’m not going in with an agenda. I need to get there and learn what I can do to help.”

He will draw on input from industry peers in southeast Idaho, he said. He is a National Potato Council board member and past chairman of the U.S. Potato Board-Potatoes USA.

“I’m proud to be an Idaho potato grower and I want to help with the Idaho potato industry any way I can,” said Jensen, who has one son active in farming and another who plans to farm. “I want to protect the industry for future generations.”

He grew up on a farm about 10 miles from his current operations. “Dad wasn’t ready to quit, so I started my own,” he said.

Jensen in 1995 started his business, which grew over the years in part through expansion prompted by neighbors approaching him about their desire to leave farming. His farm also produces wheat, barley seed and alfalfa hay, he said. Potatoes grown are Russet Burbank, Ranger Russet and Russet Norkotah.

Food traceability and environmental sustainability are among continuing trends, Jensen said. “The technology helps with that. We have to have a safe product to sell,” he said.

Cornelison, owner and CEO at fresh-pack shipper High Country Potato in Rexburg, served as the commission’s first industry relations director, based in eastern Idaho, from 2007 to 2012. He acquired the packing business from his father in 2007 but leased it to another operator until 2012, when the lease expired and he began running the business.

“It is an honor, and I appreciate all of the support of the industry,” he said of his appointment as commissioner.

The commission benefits from each member’s expertise in a particular segment of the Idaho potato industry, but “every commissioner deals with every aspect,” Cornelison said. “The job of every commissioner is to protect the industry as a whole.”

He’s going into the commissioner position “knowing it takes real time and effort to protect this wonderful industry we are part of,” he said. “I fully intend to do that.”

On the fresh-pack side, increasing the consistency of recently erratic grower returns — the payments the packers make to growers — is an issue, Cornelison said. Traditional supply-and-demand factors, and variations as to where packers’ customers buy potatoes, are at play.

“If we can continue to convince the people that take Idaho potatoes that they should take them year in and year out, no matter what options are available to them, then that will solidify grower returns,” he said.