Potatoes Spuds Tatties

Potatoes. Spuds. Tatties.

What does every one know about how spuds are grown and how crop Desiccation occurs prior to harvesting in this modern age of Agriculture ? Long gone are the days of picking them up by hand behind the old potato digger on big farms. As ever Industrial Agriculture forged ahead in the chemical direction not thinking about nature, soil degredation or peoples health. The more the mechanisation, the more the compromises and chemical applications. Harvest Workers Co-op organic farm shop  only sells Organic potatoes, all from Devon at this time and all really tasty varieties grown in soils teaming with life which attract so much wildlife to those farms.

Under intensive industrial methods, many potato crops are desiccated just before harvesting using weedkiller. How does anyone know if the potatoes have been sprayed or not on the supermarket shelves? they all look the same side by side. there’s no traceability or information on that. Other crops that are commonly desiccated around the globe in the same way are wheat, soya, oil seed rape, oats, peas, beans. The practice of Desiccation is prohibited under organic certification but as organic farmers know, chemicals are harmful to soil life which they depend on to build soil fertility. Here is a link to Wikepedia explaining Desiccation