A lecture regarding potatoes by the most prolific tomato and potato breeder in the Northwest. Tom Wagner is the creator of hundreds of new varieties, fierce advocate for “open source genetics” and organic methods, and one of the only people in the world developing reserves of true potato seed. The lecture will surely touch on genetics, nutrition, survival, and bioregionalism. Many of Mr. Wagners potatoes will be on display in the gallery, with their history and methods presented as well.

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Tom Wagner’s Background:

Tom Wagner is the Luther Burbank of today’s world. Tom works to develop new plant varieties with increased nutrition, disease resistance, storability, and other traits lost in today’s mass market varieties. All of Tom’s varieties are grown in the PNW, with suitability for our specific climate and regional food security. Tom has been developing new food plant varieties for over 56 years, with commercial varieties such as the Green Zebra tomato, the Skagit Valley Gold potato, and hundreds more. He is presently working with 100,000 lines of potatoes. Tom has recently been working on developing true potato seed to enhance the availability of germplasm throughout the world.

Tom will touch on the usefulness of “new world crops” such as tomatoes and potatoes for food security and self-sufficiency. Tom will talk about the nutriceuticals of tomatoes and potatoes; the essential nutrients that these crop could contain with a bit of breeding expertise. Enhanced antioxidants, anthocyanins, carotenoids, lycopene, are but a few. Fast cooking times in his new potatoes clones that cook in 5 minutes in boiling water is a new development of his varieties.

Tom’s endeavors further the efforts to keep seeds free, legal and available for people to grow in their gardens, farmers to grow on their farms, and not controlled by major seed companies, universities or governments.

Tom started out breeding plants on his family farm near Lancaster, Kansas. He kept a family heirloom bean alive and growing each year in his gardens from a few beans his great grandmother brought to the USA in 1888. He kept growing new selections out of his breeding work even while he obtained degrees in Anthropology, Botany, Geography, and Education. His career includes farming, managing garden centers, managing greenhouses, potato buyer, potato and tomato breeder under contract, teaching, seed catalog, and a wide host of other professions. He has offered many of his creations in Farmers’ Markets and has introduced his varieties to other organic growers.

Tom currently lives in Everett, WA. His plots are all organic and shuns any chemicals applied to the soil.