Othello teens brainstorm ideas for what kinds of activities and jobs would be most interesting to them at The Lighthouse Community Center. (Credit: Marci Miller / Rural Development Initiatives) Listen… Continue Read More
Agriculture
Cosmic Crisp apples on the Mother Tree near Wenatchee Washington. (Credit: Bob Hubner / Washington State University) Listen (Runtime 1:06) Read Known for its crunch and sweet taste, the Cosmic… Continue Reading Cosmic Read More
Ranchers struggle to keep enough fresh hay and bedding down for new calves and their mothers during the recent blizzards across southeast Oregon and much of the West. (Credit: Angie… Continue Reading Relentless wintry Read More
Dolores Huerta spoke about her years of activism at the WSU Pullman campus April 3. (Credit: College Assistance Migrant Program) Listen (Runtime 1:07) Read Civil rights activist Dolores Huerta spoke… Continue Reading Civil rights activist Dolores Read More
Adult Japanese beetles can take plants like roses, grapes or hops down to the nubs quickly if infested. The beetle comes from Asia, and doesn’t have many predators in Oregon… Continue Reading Spring killing: Read More
Legislators in Washington state are joining more than a dozen other states that are considering whether to restrict or ban foreign entities from buying farmland. The initial hearing on Olympia's version of the foreign ownership restrictions however drew more criticism than support on Tuesday. Read More
Bird flu’s toll on flocks across the country has meant eggs are expensive and in short supply. Continue Reading Bird flu means higher egg prices, now there’s a chick boom hatching across the U.S.Read More
Wine grapes growing at Two Mountain Vineyard in Zillah, Wash. Credit: Two Mountain Winery Listen (Runtime :57) Read Growers have harvested the first grapes under Washington’s new sustainability program, and… Continue Read More
For decades boatloads of Northwest apples have shipped to India – especially the variety Red Delicious. But since Trump-era tariffs on steel and aluminum went into place, retaliatory tariffs have put a crunch on that valuable fruit market. Now, Washington state's full congressional delegation is asking the federal government for help. Read More
Agriculture officials are quarantining flocks at Oakdell Farms in snowy north Franklin County, Washington, because the flock has come down with highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1. Credit: Anna Kind, Northwest… Read More
Prospective kelp growers who want to join the handful of existing commercial seaweed farms in the Pacific Northwest are having to contend with a lengthy permitting process. It's gotten contentious in a few cases, but even so, at least a couple of new seaweed farms stand on the cusp of approval. Their harvests could be sold for human food, animal feed or fertilizer. Read More
The sentence that came down for Cody Easterday Tuesday concludes one of the biggest cattle rustling cases in the history of the West. Continue Reading Cody Easterday sentenced to 11 years in prison for cattle fraud scamRead More
Only 12 commercial fishing captains still hold permits to go reefnet fishing in the Pacific Northwest out of a fleet that once numbered in the hundreds. The distinctive fishing technique dates back thousands of years as an Indigenous method to catch salmon. Its practitioners today say the gear should proliferate as the preferred way to harvest healthy salmon runs while Read More
Wine grapes are exposed to smoke for 36 hours, with samples taken every six hours to analyze how wildfire smoke might affect the grapes, and the final wine. Professor Tom… Continue Reading New Technology Could Keep Wildfire Smoke Out Of WineRead More
There's a rising tide of interest in opening seaweed farms in the Pacific Northwest. If even half of the current applicants succeed, it would more than double the small number of commercial seaweed growing operations in Oregon and Washington state. Read More
The Washington wine grape harvest is underway. Pinot Noir grapes are being harvested near Vantage, WA. Listen (Runtime :56) Read This year’s wine grape harvest is about two or three… Continue Reading Washington Wine Grape Harvest Could Be “Biggest Read More
Erin Tomson bringing her horses into the family barn. Her mother Dee used to board horses at their ranch in Pullman, WA. The price of hay is making it harder… Continue Reading Hay Is For Horses – Until It’s GoneRead More
Breaching the dams would be the best way to remove Snake River salmon runs from the Endangered Species List and the best way to maintain treaty and trust obligations with tribes, according to the report. It could cost from $10.3 billion to $27.2 billion. Read More
Mason Douglass leans on one of his thirty seed bins at Tri-State Seed outside of Connell, WA Listen Anna King reports on a serious shortage of seeds for forage crops… Continue Reading Seeds Of Drought: Weather Read More
Gangs of wild elk are attacking farmers’ haystacks in Washington and Oregon. They’re hungry, after a long drought and record mountain snow this winter has driven animals down to the lowlands. Climate scientists say things may only get worse in the future. Read More
Like interlaced fingers, the Inabas and the Yakama Nation have been collaborating to farm for generations. Now, this Japanese-American family, who owned and leased the land for a time, is returning it to the Yakama Nation. Continue Read More
As one of the top agricultural industries in the state, the Washington wine industry had to weather a significant downturn because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some are now seeing a return to profits. Continue Reading Washington Wine Industry Weathers COVIDRead More
Washington state ag community scrambles after massive flooding kills milk cattle, sickens others and leaves herds across the state short on feed. Continue Reading Dead Cattle, More That Could Become Sick Or Read More
Dairy farmers across Western Washington say they’re a day or two from totally running out of fodder. That’s because of last week’s floods. Continue Reading Dairy Cattle In Jeopardy In Western WashingtonRead More
Now that fall’s here, Northwest farmers are taking account of their summer work and crops. And they’re planning for their next harvest. But this summer’s drought and heat twisted things up. A day-trip up Taylor Flats Road in Franklin County quickly shows some of the heat’s major damage. Read More
Biochar produced by C6 Forest to Farm. CREDIT: Tom McCoy. Listen Fire scorching the forests of the Methow Valley in North Central Washington has become a devastating yearly event. “It’s… Continue Reading How Read More
One of the historically largest farm equipment sales in the country is happening this week in the Northwest. It follows the bankruptcy of the Easterday family empire after its multi-million-dollar cattle swindle. Continue Reading Read More
The saga of the troubled Easterday ag empire is spreading to rural Idaho. At issue: The fate of an Easterday ranch centered on a beautiful meadow that contributes water to the Spokane region. Continue Reading Easterday Idaho: What’s To Become Of Read More
Two meatpacking giants are battling in federal bankruptcy court over a 1,500 acre feedlot near Pasco, Washington. It’s part of the ongoing Easterday cattle swindle saga. Continue Reading Beef Wars: Two Meat Giants Battle Over Easterday Read More
Washington on Friday became the second state in the Pacific Northwest in as many days to announce emergency rules that provide farmworkers and others who work outdoors more protection from hot weather in the wake of an extreme heat wave that is believed to have killed hundreds of people. Read More
Blueberries, raspberries and blackberries from Oregon to Washington to British Columbia are baked on the bush and vine. Growers are calling the heat damage widespread and catastrophic. Continue Reading Berry Bake: Read More
Northwest farmers are pouring on the water to moisten soils ahead of the triple-digit temperatures and possible record highs expected this weekend. Continue Reading High Heat Brings High Worry About Crops, As Farmers Were Read More
The agricultural arm of The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-day Saints — Farmland Reserve, Inc. — has agreed to pay about $210 million for a major swath of southeastern Washington farm ground. Continue Reading Major Read More
Scientists have found a dead Asian giant hornet north of Seattle, the first so-called murder hornet discovered in the country this year, federal and state investigators said Wednesday. Continue Reading Dead Giant Hornet In Snohomish Read More
Nearly 12,000 acres of Easterday family farmland in Benton County will likely sell for more than its $210 million asking price, according to court documents and sources with knowledge of the deal. Continue Reading Read More
Seven apple varieties previously believed to be lost or extinct have been found in eastern Washington, including several on land near the communities of Pullman, Colfax and Moscow. Continue Reading Apple Varieties Previously Thought Lost Located Read More
Some stunted wheat fields won’t see the combine this summer. Cattle operators are severely cutting back their herds for lack of grass. Little moisture since February in wide swaths of the Northwest is to blame. And drought is deepening across the West, with federal drought maps showing massive and growing areas of red. Read More
Some top agriculture groups are upset with Washington Gov. Inslee because farm workers were not covered in last week’s announcement that fully vaccinated employees do not have to wear a mask or socially distance at work. Continue Read More
An online lending platform called Kabbage sent 378 pandemic loans worth $7 million to fake companies (mostly farms) with names like “Deely Nuts” and “Beefy King.” Continue Reading Hundreds Of PPP Loans For Pandemic Read More
Easterday Ranches and Easterday Farms has provided beef, potatoes, onions and produce to dinner tables for more than three generations. Now in bankruptcy, many of the family’s key properties will be sold to repay debts. It’s one of the largest sales of prime water-rich agricultural lands in the Columbia Basin in recent history. Read More
Seven cattle have been found mutilated over the last three months in Crook County and the sheriff’s office is actively investigating and hoping for a break in the case. This follows several recent cases in the past few years in rural Oregon. Read More
Learn how sheep ranchers in the late-nineteenth century in Eastern Oregon were already a part of complex agricultural and industrial systems that provided food, clothing and commodities to markets across the U.S. Continue Read More
Much of the Northwest’s high country is still deep in good snowpack but short on rain this spring. That has dryland wheat farmers and cattle ranchers fretting. Cold, wind and dust are even wreaking havoc with produce farmers in the region. Read More
Hundreds of farmers who rely on a massive irrigation project that spans the Oregon-California border learned Wednesday they will get a tiny fraction of the water they need amid the worst drought in decades, as federal regulators attempt to balance the needs of agriculture against federally threatened and endangered fish species that are central to the heritage of several Read More
A boom in American consumers’ online shopping during the pandemic has prompted a boost in imports from Asia. But that left U.S. agriculture products without a ride back. Many ships aren’t waiting to be loaded with agricultural goods at West Coast ports before heading back across the ocean with empty containers. Plus, the Trump administration’s trade war hit apples hard. Read More
Washington rancher Cody Easterday pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal district court to defrauding Tyson Foods Inc. and another unnamed company out of more than $244 million. Easterday admitted charging the companies for the costs of purchasing and feeding hundreds of thousands of fictitious cattle. Read More
Farmers say they’ve already taken a hit from the pandemic and higher fertilizer costs. Now they are going to get 3% less for their potatoes from Lamb Weston, McCain Foods and J.R. Simplot Company. Continue Reading Cut And Fried: Read More
The starting point of a Northwest-based saga of alleged invented cattle, a multi-million dollar lawsuit and two bankruptcies may lie in a short handwritten list of numbers scrawled on a lined sheet of three-hole punch paper that purports to show Cody Easterday’s annual losses from speculating on the cattle futures market. Read More
Just how do you miss 200,000 phantom cattle over several years? That’s what some people in the Columbia Basin cattle-feeding industry are wondering in an ongoing saga between Tyson Fresh Meats and Easterday Ranches. Read More
Seattle’s technology billionaires are many things: innovators, visionaries, philanthropists and some less polite descriptors, depending on whom you ask. But thanks to some scrupulous digging by industry journal The Land Report, which tracks land ownership across the country, we now know that Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has another feather in his multi hyphenated career Read More
