b"Eugenia Banks stands in a potato field holding spuds. PHOTO: EUGENIA BANKSWorking Growersfor the Eugenia Banks has dedicated her career to helping potato growers in Ontario.BY: ASHLEY ROBINSONGROWING UP IN CHILE, Eugenia Banks was surrounded by agriculture. Her father, Jorge C. Thomas, was an agricultural engineer working for the federal government. As a child she would travel around the country to the different provinces with her father as he worked. In the southern portion of Chile, they grew potatoes and Banks quickly found herself interested in the tuber.After Banks finished her bachelor of science degree at the University of Chile, she had the opportunity to complete her master and PhD degrees at the University of Guelph. She found herself falling in love with the potato industry in southern Ontario, and she started to work for the provincial government in 1990 as a potato specialist. I was very excited about working with potatoes. AndIn 2015 when Banks stepped back from working with the someone asked me, Are you nervous? You're going to work withprovincial government, she sat down to talk with the Ontario potatoes. And there were no women before me working withPotato Board. The Board knew how important the work Banks potatoes in the government. And not at all, I said I was reallydid was for the provinces potato growers and wanted her to be excited, Banks explains in a phone interview. I started workingable to continue to work with them.with the growers, and I found that the growers were very, veryBoth sides agreed Banks should have the freedom to do the helpful. research work she wanted with support from the Board. Banks Over the next three decades, Banks dedicated her work towas also asked to continue the provinces potato variety trials helping the Ontario potato industry. From the start she foundand organizing the annual Ontario Potato Conference and Potato herself interested in pest and disease management. One of theField Day first pests she battled was Colorado potato beetles (CPBs) byTo have somebody like Eugenia that's been so dedicated doing dip tests to check chemical efficacy against the pest. Fromto our Ontario industry and to the growers in generalyou there she moved onto late blight developing a managementdon't get to see that too often where somebody takes a takes a strategy, which she trained scouts from across North America on.career and turns it into her livelihood, Kevin Brubacher, general These werent the only pests and diseases she worked on. Inmanager of the Ontario Potato Board, says in a phone interview. 2004, Banks released the Potato Field Guide which was compiledFor Banks, shes happy with the work shes doing and wants to and edited by her. The book was meant to help growers, scoutscontinue working with growers.and crop advisors identify diseases, insects, and other problemsI enjoy so much what I'm doing that I don't expect major found in potatoes in Ontario. It was published in print beforechanges, she says. I enjoy detecting new problems. I enjoy the moving online to the Spud Smart website in 2022. variety trials, but most of all I like working with growers. 34SPUDSMART.COM Spring 2023"