POTATO AND WHEAT LEGISLATIVE TOUR CONNECTS LAWMAKERS WITH WASHINGTON AGRICULTURE

Nearly 20 state legislators, agency staff, and legislative staff joined the Washington State Potato Commission and the Washington Association of Wheat Growers for a dinner Monday night where representatives from both organizations talked about the issues to be discussed, before the full tour kicked off Tuesday morning. The group first traveled to Moon Family Farms, a small family-owned wheat farm that focuses on both commodity grain for global markets and specialty grain for local bakeries and mills. There they discussed cost increases on farm inputs, and how advancing technologies can help farms, but are often prohibitively expensive for smaller farms.
From there, the group traveled to Berg Partnership, an irrigated farm owned by three siblings who farm a variety of crops, including wheat, corn, beans, and peas, as well as renting out ground to other farms for potatoes and onions. There, Nicole Berg discussed issues regarding succession planning and proposed changes to agriculture overtime laws to relieve farmers of record high costs. She also showed her farm’s pumping station where she discussed water access issues, and the conservation steps her farm is taking to minimize their water use and maximize the time period that they can pull water from the river.

After finishing up there the group traveled to 2nd Harvest Food Bank to have lunch. During this lunch they highlighted that 85-90% of the food they distribute to both the community and other food banks through the state is privately donated by farmers and food processors like Agri-Northwest, Jensen Farms, and Easterday Farms. Afterwards they discussed the problems faced by their food bank and food banks throughout the state due to issues farmers face and highlight how with the recent bankruptcies of several large farmers they do not know where they will source roughly 1 million pounds of fruit that they received last year to help feed struggling families throughout Washington.

After lunch the group boarded the bus and traveled to Bunger Farms, owned by former chair of the Washington State Potato Commission Josh Bunger, where he showed the legislators a harvest operation and highlighted increases in equipment cost, labor shortages, and how it forced him to let several employees go and switch to an automated process. Legislators also rode on a potato digger and saw the challenges faced by farmers when he had to make a service call for his tractor, a service call that has doubled in price in the last few years.

The tour concluded at Allied Potatoes, a family-operated chip potato farm that grows potatoes for several of the largest potato chip brands in the country and around the world. At their packaging facility they talked to legislators about how issues that they face in their Washington operations are very similar to the issues faced in other western states, and their hopes that Washington will be proactive about protecting their agricultural sector will spur other states in the region to do the same and set Washington apart as a leader in the movement.