Front-row-left-to-right: Samantha Robinette, Elizabeth Ryan, Rose Saxton, Madison Dirks, Olivia Brown
Dr. Owen McDougal was recently interviewed by Rachel Cohen, Boise State Public Radio, Jim Max of the Idaho Press, and KTVB’s “The 208” newscast about wildfire smoke impact on Idaho’s potato crops. McDougal recently established the Boise State Food and Dairy Innovation Center and is partnering with the University of Idaho’s Mike Thornton on the study. In these articles, McDougal and his collaborators discuss reports that food producers are seeing crop yield impacts and the suspicion has landed on increased smoke due to prolonged fire seasons. McDougal’s research group will perform chemical analysis on potatoes to examine metabolite changes within potatoes exposed to smoke and compare the results with control group potatoes.
The Boise State Public Radio story can be viewed here: https://www.boisestatepublicradio.org/news/2022-09-13/how-does-wildfire-smoke-affect-potatoes-idaho-researchers-are-studying-it
The Idaho Press article can be viewed here: https://www.idahopress.com/news/local/boise-state-u-of-i-to-study-wildfi re-smoke-s-impact-on-idahospotato- crops/article_6610b2c8-3391-11ed-a9a3-c7ab5daa2709.html
