Trademark: Grown in Idaho Logo

First Used: 1955

First Registered: 1956

Current Owner: Idaho Potato Commission [1]

Trademark Type: certification mark; design mark; word mark

Primarily Associated With: potatoes [2]

Brief (and likely incomplete) History [3]:

The Grown in Idaho Logo design mark isn’t just a feel-good farm badge; it is one of the oldest still-active certification marks in the US and a result of one of the strictest agricultural certification systems in the United States. Let’s take a look!

The Idaho Potato Commission (IPC) was created in 1937, during the tail-end of the Great Depression as Idaho farmers faced plummeting prices and market instability. The IPC’s original goal was survival: stabilizing crop quality and pricing during a time when the nation’s demand for food was growing was growing exponentially. In 1939, the IDAHO® certification mark [4] was officially adopted, requiring that potatoes bearing the Idaho name met heightened quality standards set by the IPC. In the mid-1950s, the IPC went a step further and required that the Grown in Idaho Logo Certification Mark be placed on every bag of genuine Idaho Potatoes. “Grown in Idaho” became more than a slogan, it was a promise of quality.

So what does it actually take to earn the Grown in Idaho Logo certification mark? First, geography is non-negotiable: the potatoes must be grown in Idaho. But that’s just the starting line. Each box of potatoes must have less than 6% defects (compared to the USDA standard of 8%), be U.S. No. 2 grade or better, and all counts of potatoes in each box must be accurate (e.g., an 80-count, 50-pound box of potatoes must have 80 potatoes in it with just a 10 percent variance allowed for the box). Every lot must also be inspected on-site by USDA-licensed inspectors (stationed directly in Idaho packing facilities) and issued a time-limited inspection certificate that can be traced all the way back to the field of origin. Only after clearing all of those hurdles may a potato legally wear the Grown in Idaho Logo certification seal.

And the scale is ENORMOUS: roughly 320,000 acres of potatoes harvested each year, producing billions of pounds, contributing billions to the state economy, and supporting tens of thousands of jobs. No matter how you prefer to eat it (fried, baked, mashed, you name it), next time you do think about what it took to get to you!