Potato Giveaway In Portage

Nov 04, 2019

You likely saw a large crowd of people at the corner of Saskatchewan Avenue West and 18th Street in Portage this morning, and afternoon.

It was the second Community Potato Giveaway in three years, hosted by Mark and Yanara Peters of Spruce Drive Farms.

Mark explains why they're doing it.

"The surface reason would be, I guess, just to build a relationship between the rural community and Portage," he says. "There's something contagious that happens when you give like this. There are a lot of good things that Portage has to offer, and we just want show our appreciation for what we can do."

Peters tells us it's the second time in three years, with last year's giveaway cancelled because of frozen potatoes. He says doing this feels great.

"Because I know that a lot of people do need it," he says. "And there's just a lot of thankfulness, and we're very thankful, too, that we actually are able to do something like this. I'm not really sure how to put it all to words properly."

Yanara Peters sees this as a way of giving back.

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Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.