SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — Most folks think of Idaho when they think of potatoes, but farmers in Washington state's Columbia Basin are making their own mark on the nation's potato industry.

Though the state only has 250 potato growers, the crop is worth $7.4 billion to the state's economy each year, Chris Voigt, executive director of the Washington State Potato Commission, told The Spokesman-Review (http://bit.ly/2pSyJSt).

But it's a competitive market with low profit margins, and as a result nearly all of the state's potato farms are large, high-tech operations rather than small mom-and-pop farms....