[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 112 (Monday, July 8, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Page S4226]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        TRIBUTE TO DON FLANNERY

  Mr. COLLINS. Mr. President, in a 2012 interview with a national 
agriculture magazine, Don Flannery, executive director of the Maine 
Potato Board, was asked what he would like to be the legacy of his long 
and productive career. His answer was this: ``that I was able to make a 
difference in the Maine potato industry and was able to lead the 
industry in a positive direction.''
  Today, as Don retires after 27 years with the board, I am delighted 
to join his many friends and colleagues in offering my fellow Aroostook 
County native our thanks for a job well done and our congratulations 
for a legacy well secured.
  Don truly learned the potato industry from the ground up, beginning 
as a grower with a 250-acre farm. With a degree in agricultural 
resource economics from the University of Maine, he worked in rural 
economic development at the local and regional level for 13 years. 
Armed with that knowledge and experience, Don joined the Maine Potato 
Board in 1997 as assistant executive director and was promoted to the 
top position just 5 years later.
  Strengthening a vital industry made up of hundreds of growers that 
employs more than 6,000 hard-working men and women while generating 
annual sales topping a half-billion dollars is no easy task, but Don 
has met every challenge. He has been a driving force for many 
agricultural projects, including the construction of a potato research 
facility, infrastructure development for two processing plants, funding 
to support the State of Maine seed production facility, and expansion 
into new markets. Working with growers and University of Maine and U.S. 
Department of Agriculture researchers, Don championed the development 
of the Caribou Russet, a new disease- and drought-resistant variety 
designed to thrive in a warming climate.
  In the decades that I have worked with Don, I have known no stronger 
supporter of Maine potato growers. When Washington bureaucrats tried to 
restrict the use of potatoes in the school breakfast and lunch 
programs, Don provided the data to prove how nutritious the potato is. 
When the agricultural research lab at the University of Maine in Orono 
was threatened with closure, Don helped lead the effort to keep it 
open. And this year, when Washington tried to reclassify the potato as 
a grain rather than a vegetable, Don worked with me to block that 
absurd change.
  Don Flannery's leadership has earned the respect and admiration of 
growers and processors throughout Maine and across the country. His 
commitment to economic growth has made a positive and lasting 
difference for the industry and for rural communities. I thank him for 
his many accomplishments and wish him all the best in the years to 
come.

                          ____________________