Endorsement Letter from the Potato Council

National Potato Council

1300 L Street, NW, Suite 910

Washington, DC 20005

202.682.9456 ∙ 202.682.0333 fax

www.nationalpotatocouncil.org

[email protected]

March 2006

Dear Potato Handler:

On behalf of the National Potato Council (NPC), we want to encourage you to participate in the Postharvest Chemical Use Survey (PHCUS) being conducted by USDA-National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS). NPC has worked closely with NASS to ensure that your responses to the survey will be treated confidentially and that any publication of the data will be aggregated at the state or national level to absolutely protect the identity of individual growers.

The NASS postharvest survey collects data on chemical use patterns for storage potatoes. Many regulatory agencies and public interest groups rely on pesticide use data to evaluate options for the estimation of risk from pesticide use to consumers, handlers and the environment. Without your cooperation in gathering realistic use information these risk estimates by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other parties will be based on assumptions which may bear no relationship to real world use patterns.

The current NASS postharvest survey will collect pesticide usage and pest management practices data from those who handled storage potatoes from the 2005 crop year. We understand that potato growers and handlers are extremely busy and we are pleased that only 30 to 35 minutes of your time will be required to meet with the NASS survey enumerator.

This is an important effort that will benefit the entire potato industry. As your industry representatives, let us take this opportunity to thank you in advance for your participation.

Sincerely,

Jim Wysocki John Keeling

President Executive Vice President and CEO