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24 POTATO GROWER | FEBRUARY 2018 Zeba is a starch-based soil enhancement that reduces nutrient leaching and plant water stress. Crops produce more and yield higher quality. Learn more at www.Zeba.com Boost your potato yield, quality, and profits Zeba is a starch-based soil enhancement that reduces nutrient leaching 170774UniPho12h.indd 1 12/7/17 1:57 PM Kenosha Potato Project, which gathers growers large and (mostly) small from around the world to discuss, promote and protect little-known potato varieties. The project currently lists over 400 varieties, most of which Caravati himself grows on his own plot. The vast majority of them are heirloom and exotic varieties. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, many colored varieties were abandoned in deference to russet and white strains. As a result, while germplasm exists of many of those heirlooms, the supply isn't completely healthy and market- viable. "One of my goals," Caravati says, "is to make sure all these varieties that people have saved are healthy and available, and that the ones we have in vitro can be brought to market whenever the market demands it." Caravati bemoans the dearth of funds that makes potato breeders themselves a rare breed. Nevertheless, that shortage is a cold, hard fact of the industry. Caravati's solution? "The bottom line is, I'm trying to inspire more people to become hobby breeders," he says. "I believe urban agriculture will become more important looking into the future. A big part of Caravati is a fi rm believer in diet being as important—if not more so—as medical care in keeping the human body strong as it ages.