To the editor:
I read with great interest the recent report in Spudman that the Caribou Russet is now the top seed potato variety planted in Maine.
The University of Maine developed this hearty, high-yield potato in partnership with the Maine Potato Board. It has proven popular with growers, processors and consumers, and enabled Maine to be one of only three states where potato production expanded between 2000 and 2022. The Maine potato industry now has a $1.3 billion annual economic impact, supporting more than 6,500 jobs — many of them in Aroostook County.
Almost 160 years after our founding as an agricultural and mechanical arts college, Maine’s land grant university continues to evolve to meet new learner and state needs. We remain deeply rooted in our commitment to strengthen and grow Maine agriculture through integrated teaching, research and extension. Our potato breeding program — long led by Professor Greg Porter, who recently retired, and now headed by Assistant Professor Mario Andrade — is an enduring example.
That’s why I am excited to share that site work is underway to modernize the century-old Aroostook Farm in Presque Isle, where that program is based. Leveraging $3 million secured by the University of Maine System through Gov. Janet Mills’ Maine Jobs & Recovery Plan and approved by the Legislature, UMaine will renovate the current potato storage research building into a sorting and data collection line and laboratory.
When completed, this state-of-the-art breeding facility will complement our world-class university potato research and extension program. It will accelerate the development of future varieties necessary to the resilience of Maine’s top agricultural commodity and dependent rural jobs, and prepare our students to innovate and lead in the future food economy.
I thank UMaine’s many partners in writing the Caribou Russet’s success story, including our talented faculty, staff and students, local growers and those who have supported the state and federal investment necessary to sustain our research and development enterprise.
I look forward to being in The County to cut the ribbon on the greatly modernized Aroostook Farm this spring and to tasting what comes next.
Joan Ferrini-Mundy
President, University of Maine
Orono
