The Fairest in the Land: Magic Valley Potatoes

Sandy Bragg likes to talk about the “fairest potatoes in the land” in the Magic Valley of Idaho.?Today, Sandy and her husband Jeff, prepare some of the best homemade American fries too!?This is proven by the sheer joy and excitement these “fairest of potatoes” inspire all around.??

“We cannot show up for our grandchildren without colored potatoes for the fryer,” Sandy said.?“I have friends who can’t wait to see me because they are dreaming of our potatoes – people run out the door to greet me and teenagers crawl all over themselves to get them.”

The Braggs do not have to brag about the “magic potatoes” grown in Magic Valley, they speak for themselves with their flavor and nutrient density.?The whimsical name of their past location in Idaho has not always been a fairy tale though.?In fact, it has been a fight to retain what is truly hearty and good about potato farming. This couple is not giving up on their own potato knowledge and helping others through their business – SuperFood Consulting.?

“I helped found Everything Potatoes, Inc. as a platform to enhance the organic and regenerative potato sector,” said Jeff, who has been growing potatoes his entire life.?“My passion is to see the best quality crop, including rotational crops, flourish with the right amount of ingredients.?This is about soil health to gut health.”

“Potatoes are the most widely-consumed vegetable, and they can affect soil and human health the most.?The main industry doesn’t speak enough to the diversity of potato varieties and their intrinsic compounds that can actually heal,” he went on to explain.?

“The grocery store is not the place where health begins. It begins in the soil.?We have taken advantage of the soil and water for cheap food – but at what cost??It’s endangering society because of the food we eat,” Jeff added.

“The soil is Mother Earth’s skin,” Sandy said.?“I like to say we are slipping seeds softly under her skin.?For 40 years, I have traveled with Jeff all over and seen millions of acres of land and thousands of fields of potatoes.”

“The soil has changed so much – and not for the better,” Jeff echoed his wife.

“When we got married, the Magic Valley was such a vibrant county – every mile corner had a small industry on it.?Everyone really did help each other out.?It was just a beautiful thing.?There were rows of different crops, 14 to 20 different types, it was important to everyone in the valley to have long rotations.?Rotating crops was embedded in Jeff’s DNA,” Sandy reflected.?

Born in 1958, Jeff’s father Clyde and Grandpa Clyde placed a shovel in his hands early on.?He stayed close to his father in the potato fields until allergies plagued him.?As a result, he spent more time with his Grandma Emelia. Walking the ditch banks to pick wild asparagus, young Jeff began learning nature’s role is far deeper and more important than the surface business of agriculture.

“Our neighbor was Joe Marshall – who helped build the Panama Canal and was known as the ‘Idaho Potato King.’?This was pre-pivot irrigation when we furrow irrigated.?Along with the potatoes we raised peas, alfalfa, pasture grass, 12 to 14 kinds of bean seeds, corn, and onions.?We had 600-head of sheep and four or five pigs that dad would give as Christmas presents to the hired men.?There were also 13 to 15 milk cows and a couple horses.?I have memories of my grandma and mother, Ellen Corrine, churning butter on our porch.?Ellen became the one that rode the potato harvesters with us.?I watched my grandma, mom, Sandy and our daughters go through the change in agriculture to the monoculture we have today,” Jeff said.?

The Braggs watched the slow death of the soils around them too, Sandy stated.?“A metaphor would be how the white man killed the buffalo.?I feel like that is what has happened to the Magic Valley.?It is like a Dust Bowl of sorts – a quiet and ghostly area with no buildings.?In 42 years, I have literally seen the color of the soil change in southern Idaho – it has a gray tone to it.?In the 1980s, whenever I put Jeff’s clothes in the washing machine and shut the door, I would have enough of a whiff of the chemicals that I would almost fall on the floor – that was when I was carrying my babies.?My first baby has Crohn’s disease now and the second deals with Celiac disease.”?

The couple sees an absolute connection between soil health and human health.?It’s a connection they have been making in a host of experiences their entire lives.?Jeff explained, “When we got married, my dad looked over and said, ‘You will need a job now that you are married.?You have a knack for science.?I have a soils lab that I have hired to watch over our potato crops.?So, I did an internship with the lab in 1980 and then I started my professional career working for them in 1981.?They sent me to school to get more potato science education and set me up with a consulting agronomist.?I took the first potato science class given in the United States on September 29, 1981.”

The 1980s were an extension of the “get big or get out” message in agriculture that started the downfall of Idaho neighborhood farms, the couple said.?“The forces really came into play in the 1960s and 70s when J.R. Simplot invented frozen French fries and hooked up with McDonald’s.?Simplot owns most of the phosphorus mines in Southeastern Idaho.?Some of the big problems in the potato industry started in Idaho with a product called Sprout Nip? that just got removed from global use because it’s a hormone disrupting chemical. It’s why we could hold potatoes for months in storage.?That is all slowly beginning to change with more natural compounds coming in.”?

Still, regardless of some change, understanding soil health is a steep learning curve for all farms faced with the complexities of modern agriculture decisions.?When we were young, we were like a sponge and getting indoctrinated with the wrong message.?The soil labs were, and many still are, all tied up with the fertility and chemical companies.?They take you out to fancy dinners and say to try this or that chemical.?You are young and you have children, and you want to make money,” Sandy admitted.?

The Braggs kept learning though and changing.?They had a gut instinct and the intellect and heart to know there was a better way.?Sandy was the child of a Teamsters family – loggers and fishermen.?When she married Jeff, she said it was like culture shock, “There’s a lot of difference between a Teamster family and a farm family.”??

Jeff was up and coming in the potato industry he loved.?Then came the mid-life potato crisis.?In January of 2000, as they were going on stage to receive a National Stewardship Award for Integrated Pest Management, hundreds of potato farmers in Idaho were going out of business due to NAFTA – the North American Free Trade Agreement.?Jeff strived to balance farming with a professional career working with a crop genetics company that was a predecessor of Monsanto.?These were some of the developers of the first genetically modified foods on the market.?He also worked with Potandon Produce (a marketer of Green Giant onions and potatoes) and others, always trying to stay afloat and progress in the industry.?

“Then I met a Japanese farmer that taught sequential planting.?We started eating different potatoes and recognized the flavor and texture they had compared to others,” Jeff said.

With a passion for rotational crops, and crop diversity overall, woven into Jeff’s DNA, he began to hearken his roots.?He worked on the Plant Variety Protection Act (PVPA) that was instituted by the World Trade Organization (WTO) in the 1960s. He explained the act is a voluntary program that provides patent-like rights to breeders, developers, and others to make sure varieties benefit are able to cover research costs.???

Always seeking more diversity in the industry, Jeff said the “powers that be” were always seeking the opposite, “The so-called ‘potato cartel’ and their cronies were not looking at nutrition as much as if McDonald’s could make a French fry out of potatoes – it was about the length of the fry and the uniformity of the cut.”?

Jeff said there were all these nutrient-dense potatoes on the back burner while the industry moved forward with fewer options for better health, “The U.S. was primarily only about white, flesh potatoes.”??

“About seven years ago, Jeff invited one of the leaders of Frito-Lay’s few growers to go to ‘open days’ in Holland.?This is an event where all the potato breeders convene.?Jeff was busy with another company, so I took the gentlemen myself.?The Frito guy would not look at any other variety but the white potato.?It was about nothing but color, not nutrient density,” Sandy recalled.?

The Braggs’ daughters are in their 30s and 40s now and deal with autoimmune disorders and other health-related issues they believe are partially from the agricultural practices they were around growing up.?Jeff was diagnosed with diabetes.?But the family, in their learning, has changed their diet and now it’s all about regenerative farming and seeking out high-quality organic foods when they can.?

“I call the potato industry a broken system,” Sandy said.?“It’s all based on money.?Our daughters will call us and send us pictures of potatoes they see in the store that have been fumigated and doused with pesticides and other chemicals.” They will say, “Mom, something has to be done. There are no good potatoes anymore in the store.”

“Less is more with all of this,” she went on to explain.?“Trust Mother Nature that she knows what she is doing.?Trust in nature’s processes.?It’s about best management practices – not everyone has to be organic, but they should use the best management practices they can over chemicals.”

“Regenerative agriculture is what we are doing.?I switched dad to no-till.?Now we are using microbes in the soil.?We are striving for diversity in our cropping systems.?We are paying attention to what is best,” Jeff said.

“Our Creator shows us diversity all around in nature.?When we went the regenerative and organic direction it was scary, now it is the most beautiful thing.?We have lived both sides of the coin.?The Creator shows us that when you put something man made on a plant or the soil, over time it starts a downhill decline,” Sandy added.?

With a new, healthier diet and renewed passion for the potato fields they have loved for a lifetime, Sandy said, “I feel sure I will make it to 100.?I can work hard all day on the planter or harvester.?I can outwork anyone younger.?I love accomplishing things now.”

Jeff is ready to promote the vast potential of the “fairest potatoes in the land” to anyone across the nation or world who will listen, “We have to get back to the regenerative, rotational agriculture I learned prior to chemical agriculture.?This is deeply important to me as it has everything to do with the health of the soil and the health of people.”??

Connect with the Braggs and their fairest potatoes in the land:?

Jeff, [email protected] | 208-521-1851

Sandy, [email protected] | 208-227-6435

Follow Jeff on LinkedIn:?https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/jeff-bragg-63910944