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For decades, plant breeders and researchers across North America have spent countless hours meticulously matching potential partners in hopes of creating a better potato. With bleary-eyed, dogged de- termination, they pore over trial reports and tenderly cul- tivate tiny plantlets. With a little bit of luck, all that work might ultimately lead to one of those crosses becoming a named variety and put to use on actual farms and in actual kitchens. Every year, news about a few of these new varieties starts making the rounds. Each holds a heap of promise: This one will store longer; that one is less susceptible to bruising; yet another is more resistant to late blight or Fusarium or psyllids. By and large, each of those varieties does what it says it will. Yet, for some reason, after all that work and the successful production of exactly what they were going for, very few people in the world of variety development have seen their varieties become widely accepted in the industry. This phenomenon is perhaps illustrated most starkly in two russet varieties: Burbank and Norkotah. Since what feels like the dawn of time, these two have completely domi- nated both the fresh and pro- cess sectors the russet market. Over last couple decades, dozens of varieties have been touted as "the next Burbank" or "the next Norkotah." On paper, most appear to have the chops to back up such a claim. But none have. The question is, why? Jeanne Debons is the 20 POTATO GROWER | JANUARY 2022 Why Not Us? Richard, Mike and James Macy inspect a field of Clearwater Russet seed potatoes near Culver, Oregon