January 2021 - 8

State of the Industry
NPC chief Quarles talks about a tough 2020 and what an
administration change might mean for potato industry
By Zeke Jennings
MANAGING EDITOR
W
e knew heading into 2020 that the presidential
election would be one of the biggest stories of the
year. It was, but the COVID-19 pandemic and all of
its effects knocked the election down to a distant second.
Joe Biden's win not only means an administration change,
but a change to the opposing party and different viewpoints
and priorities on policymaking.
As the calendar flips to 2021, we thought it was a good time
to talk to National Potato Council CEO Kam Quarles, who is
based in Washington, D.C., on the election results and what
they could mean for the potato industry.
We're headed for an administration change in
the White House. How does that change the
focus of the National Potato Council?
Even though every election is unique, one of the traits they
all have is they involve a lot of change for us. ... What I equate
it to is that you're sitting there playing poker and every election
deals you a new hand of cards. It doesn't mean that you have
no options when an election rolls out, it just changes the
probabilities of what you can and can't get done.
Looking forward to a Biden administration, what I'm
telling folks is that we've been extremely successful on
the environmental and nutrition fronts over the past four
years. I think we're going to have a lot of work to do over
the next four years to maintain that balanced approach to
the regulatory process. Regardless of what the White House
or Secretary of Agriculture think, it's not breaking news that
there are some differing opinions in the far-left side of the
Democratic Party about things related to the environment
and some things related to nutrition (guidelines). We're
going to have to thoughtfully and aggressively push the
science that originally won the day for us. We're going to
have to redouble our efforts.
Any thoughts on benefits or positive
developments of a change?
We don't have a Secretary of Agriculture named (as of
Dec. 10), but if you look at some of the early announcements
on (cabinet positions), it's clear that (Joe Biden) is going to
rely on people who are very experienced in running the
federal government to be the backbone of his administration.
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Spudman.com
Kam Quarles
You might disagree with them on policy, but in terms of the
mechanics of running the federal government, I liken it to
a football coach hiring a bunch of experienced assistants.
You probably have a good feel for how that team is going to
operate. It's still very early in the transition process, but it's
clear he wants experienced hands working on these issues.
That bodes well for what is likely to be a very complicated
Farm Bill, given the funding challenges that are out there.
I think it also bodes well for the trade agenda. While there
have been some successes of the outgoing administration,
trade has been very volatile and somewhat chaotic. ... I think
stabilizing the relationships in key markets is probably going
to be a focus of the Biden administration.
Most pre-election polls projected a more
lopsided win for Biden, as well as for Democrats
taking control of the Senate and increasing their
majority in the House. That didn't happen. While
the Senate is still yet-to-be-decided, what is your
takeaway from the overall election results?
It's clear the Democrats really underperformed in those
districts that are sometimes called frontier districts. They're
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January 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of January 2021
