The Holy Grail of Fries

Growers hunt for variety to wow McDonald's

By John Miller
The Associated Press

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KIMBERLY, Idaho — From the fields of Idaho to tasting rooms in suburban Chicago, potato farmers, researchers and industry representatives are in the midst of a hunt for an elusive prey: a new spud for McDonald's french fries.

A decade has passed since the fast-food giant last added a U.S. potato variety to three others approved for its golden fries, which irks and motivates potato researchers who hope their progeny will be next.

McDonald's buys more than 3.4 billion pounds of U.S. potatoes annually, so it has the power to dictate whether a variety sprouts, winds up in the less lucrative supermarket freezer or, worse yet, is banished to become dehydrated taters.

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"It's a card game where McDonald's holds nine-tenths of the cards," said Jeanne Debons, the Potato Variety Management Institute's director.

The institute was established in 2005 by the Idaho, Oregon and Washington potato commissions to handle licensing and royalties for potatoes developed at universities and federal research facilities in the three states.

An unwritten ambition: to get new potato varieties looked at by McDonald's.

The company relies on the Russet Burbank for many of its fries, though this 130-year-old variety takes an eternity to mature, gulps water, and falls victim to rots and other diseases, meaning farmers must douse it in chemicals. Socially conscious investors want McDonald's to help cut pesticides to protect the environment and farmworker health.

Coming up with a spud stud is no mean feat: One variety McDonald's tested, the Premier Russet, has a pedigree resembling the lineage of a thoroughbred race horse. The company decided it was an also-ran.

Other U.S. potato-growing regions are also on the case. In July, researchers and industry reps meeting in Sturgeon Bay, Wis., home of the U.S. Potato Gene bank, discussed sustainable varieties to help "McDonald's to advertise that potatoes they serve are produced with less chemical and water input," said the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Chuck Brown.

Mitch Smith, McDonald's agricultural products director, said the chain is scrutinizing the Bannock Russet, a 10-year- old potato variety bred in Idaho that isn't as susceptible to disease as Russet Burbanks.

"If we can find a variety that does that, with less inputs, water or whatever, that's something we're looking for," Smith said. "To date, there are not a lot of varieties that perform consistently enough."