How a Run of Dud Harvests Spurred the Search for the Perfect Potato
- Serena Valentino
- 1 day ago
- 5 min read
By Yusuf Khan WSJ Pro June 23, 2026 1:13 pm ET
McCain supplies a quarter of the world’s fries, but extreme weather is making it tougher for farmers to grow the spuds
McCain had a problem. The family-run company that supplies a quarter of the world’s french fries was facing a potato shortage.
When its top agronomists toured its farmers’ fields from Canada to South Africa they found entire crops failing. Something had to be done.
Years of intensive farming had drained the fields of their nutrients. Flash floods were waterlogging soils, while droughts were killing off whatever crops survived. Just over a decade ago, McCain was being hit by some of the worst potato harvests since its founding in 1957 and the problem was no longer a one-off.
“It used to be that we would have one or two climate events every 10 to 15 years,” said Charlie Angelakos, vice president of global external affairs and sustainability at McCain.
“Then the business started to notice a startling pattern: it was not uncommon to get 10, 12 or 15 climate events in one year, whether that was a drought, fires, or too much rain,” he said. “We knew we had to do something.”
In 2018, the company conducted its first study into how changing weather patterns were hitting its potato harvest. What it found was startling: its entire methodology for growing potatoes was wrong and needed to be revamped, the company said.
Intensive farming practices that were heavy on fertilizers and pesticides were found to be damaging soil health and were ruled out. New types of potatoes that could cope with extreme weather events were called for. McCain hired soil-health scientists to bring nutrients back to the soil naturally. Even the design of farm machinery was considered — and tractors were fitted with wider tires to ensure that soil was less compacted when driven over.
“This is about building a resilient food supply system so that we can continue to operate our business,” Angelakos said.
McCain itself doesn’t own many farms. Instead, it partners with potato growers like John Bubb, a fourth-generation farmer from Shropshire in the heart of England.
McCain asked Bubb to use regenerative agricultural techniques on his farm to boost production and to test how different growing techniques and potato varieties fare in different regions. It also wanted his farm to operate as a living lab to see what methods worked best. His farm is one of a number conducting trials in the U.K. McCain is running similar trials in Canada and South Africa.
Regenerative agriculture is becoming increasingly popular among food industry executives. The practice involves less intensive growing methods to be kinder to the environment. These include no-till farming, in which fields aren’t plowed so often, and planting offseason crops to keep the soil bound together during the winter. Companies such as PepsiCo and Diageo have embraced “regenag” practices, and it’s one of the few sustainable practices to be backed by the Trump administration. Fewer inputs and better soil health help to improve crop production long term, advocates said.
Soil can be adaptable when faced with climate extremes if it is nurtured well, according to Praveena Sridhar, chief science and technology officer of the Save Soil movement, a nonprofit focused on improving farmer livelihoods through soil health. “It’s one that can work as a sponge when there is a flood or respond in the right way when there is a drought.”
Bubb said that when McCain suggested using regenerative agriculture techniques on his farm, he didn’t need much convincing. “There’s now a lot of extreme weather—wet weather, dry weather and our tractors were getting stuck,” he said. “It was happening more often than it should and we just realized that we really were damaging soil.”
Bubb uses a combination of new techniques on his farm. Crops like peas and clover are planted between rows of potatoes to help bring nitrogen back into the soil. Cover crops like winter wheat are grown in the off season, to help bind the soil together and stop it being washed away. Wildflowers have also been planted at the edges of the field, to improve biodiversity and get more pollinators into the area. He even gets neighboring sheep farmers to bring their herds into his fields to trample the soil and eat the leftover plants. They also leave behind a vital source of manure.
All of this helps to create better soil, McCain said. More nutrients allow roots to grow deeper, keeping the soil intact during heavy rains. They also allow crops to tap deeper water sources during droughts. More nitrogen means more natural bacteria and micro-organisms in the soil, for the potato crops to feed on as they grow.
“The way we are farming has gone back to how my granddad would have done it,” Bubb said. “My dad doesn’t understand it at all, but my granddad who’s not here anymore, he would have understood,” Bubb said.
New types of potatoes have also been tried. Longer potatoes with a thin skin that makes them easier to peel, and varieties that crisp up when cooked to produce that perfect fluffy fry, were just a few of the company’s criteria.
In Bubb’s field, new potato varieties named “11-Z” are in the early stages of their growing cycle. In the company’s North American trials, McCain has shifted away from the traditional Russet Burbank variety to Dakota Russet, Caribou Russet and Teton Russet potatoes.
McCain said these varieties, plus the work of farmers like Bubb, turned potatoes once wilting under drought and succumbing to disease during floods into much more resilient potatoes. It said they’re now able to withstand freak weather and require less nitrogen based fertilizers to get the same crops.
“That variety piece is one part of the bigger puzzle,” said Michelle D’Souza, research and innovation manager at McCain who developed many of the practices used by McCain’s partner farmers. “But a variety is only as good as the soil it’s grown in.”
Bubb said he believes soil health is intrinsic to human health. He said the soil he used to tend lacked life and made poor harvests more likely. Now, he’s trying to get more bugs and critters living under his feet.
“It’s taken us 50 years to get rid of all our worms and it’s going to take us quite a few years to get them all back again,” he said.
Bubb said he hopes to pass down his farm to his two sons, Archie and Will, and has advocated regenerative agriculture to other farmers he meets. “We want to look after the soil,” Bubb said. “I’d like to say it’s because I want to grow good potatoes for McCain, but if that soil isn’t here in 30 years time then these guys wouldn’t have a business either. It’s that fine balance.”
Visit The Wall Street Journal for the original article.