The key upstate New York resource open for industrial development is its vast fallow land. The universal commodity that fills this void with stable local pricing and a nutritious human food superior to grains is the potato. A potato empire once thrived in the north country prior to the Pine Camp land seizure.

The United Nations has dubbed 2008 the International Year of the Potato and hailed it as the "food of the future." Potatoes are more nutritious, faster growing, need less land and water and can thrive in worse growing conditions than any other crop. They provide up to four times as much complex carbohydrate per acre as grain, better quality protein and several vitamins. A medium-size potato boiled in its skin has half an adult's daily dose of vitamin C for example. They also contain B vitamins, plus many of the trace elements grain lacks.

Trucking expense is becoming an important issue with out-of-state food delivery, and the erection of wind power generators is diminishing available land necessary for future local food production.

David Graf

Watertown