Spring work starts up, ready or not. And Northwest growers are scrambling to figure out how to work around the global coronavirus pandemic and still bring in the coming harvest. Continue Reading Stumbling Toward Spring: Read More
Agriculture
Farmworkers are still working during the coronavirus epidemic. They're essential. But they're also at greater risk of infection. Continue Reading ‘Essential’ Status Means Jobs For Farmworkers, But Greater Virus RiskRead More
About 250,000 workers came to the U.S. on H-2A visas last year, the majority of them from Mexico. They've become an increasingly important piece of America's food industry. Continue Reading Coronavirus Threatens Food Supply Read More
Washington regulators must soon consider rules to limit the use of a controversial pesticide that can cause neurological and health problems, especially in young children. A bill passed by state lawmakers this session didn’t outright ban the pesticide, as health and farmworker activists had proposed. Read More
Climate change isn’t a new topic for progressive churches like Shalom United Church of Christ in Richland. But it is perhaps tinged with new urgency. Survey results from the Pew Research Center show that congregations are delving into environmental awareness recently. And so are farmers. Read More
American farmers spend about $32 billion each year to rent land, and Tillable CEO Corbett Kull thinks his company could be farmland's AirBnB or Zillow. "This is one of the beauties of digital marketplaces, where you can bring two parties together that otherwise might never meet," he says. Read More
The Bureau of Land Management decides who gets to do what on some 250 million acres of public land in the country, or to put it another way roughly one-tenth of all the land in the U.S. Relocating its headquarters to the West, where most of its actual land is, has been floated for years. But now the Trump administration is actually making it happen. Read More
Right now, all sorts of products aren’t reaching the U.S. because of the coronavirus outbreak that originated in Wuhan, China. Reciprocally, many U.S. agricultural and forestry products aren’t shipping back into China and other Pacific Rim countries. Global trade watchers say backed-up trade is building up on both sides of the Pacific Ocean. Read More
Flood waters in southeastern Washington and northeastern Oregon are starting to recede. But this relatively good news follows days of bad news and inundated towns – along with collapsed bridges, dozens of helicopter rescues and washed-out roads. It’s all caused by recent heavy rainfall and fast-melting snow. Read More
A rancher is rattled by the recent slaying of one of his cows near Hampton, Oregon. Continue Reading ‘You’re Scared To Go Out Without A Gun’: Another Mutilated Cow In Central Oregon Rattles Read More
The apple in question is WA 2, known to consumers as Sunrise Magic. WSU claims that Yakima apple grower Pro Orchard Management and affiliated packer Apple King infringed on the patent by growing and selling Sunrise Magic without a license. Continue Read More
The recently signed Phase 1 U.S.-China deal promises some relief. Details remain unclear, but the United States government’s interpretation of this deal is that China will purchase $40 billion of agricultural goods in 2020. Some analysts have questioned how realistic those estimates are, given that the highest level of farm products the United States has ever exported to Read More
The bigleaf maple has a broad canopy and is native to the West Coast. It grows from San Diego, California all the way north to British Columbia’s Vancouver Island. But the West Coast timber industry is largely set up to harvest Douglas fir. The tree, with its broad-shading canopy, is often eradicated so more Douglas fir will grow. Read More
For the love of Johnny Appleseed! Why are so many apples left hanging (and rotting) on trees in Northwest orchards after the fall harvest? Industry experts and growers says it’s a combination of factors – but really not due to tariffs, as some people think. Read More
More than 300 people showed up to hear speakers talk about why it’s important to either keep or alter the dams. The panel stems from a Washington state study that will guide the state’s position on dam removal. Continue Read More
Upcoming public workshops will examine a draft report that gauges how people in Washington want to deal with the fate of the dams. At the workshops, officials will present the report’s findings, followed by a panel discussion. People can submit written and online comments on the draft report through Jan. 24. Read More
Groundwater in southeastern Oregon is drying up. Farming, which uses a lot of that water, could decimate the region unless communities make drastic changes soon. Continue Reading Water Crisis In Eastern Oregon Puts Rural Community At A Read More
In 2019, the federal government delivered an extraordinary financial aid package to America's farmers. Farm subsidies jumped to their highest level in fourteen years, most of them paid out without any action by Congress. Read More
The Oregon ranchers whose imprisonment helped spur an armed occupation in 2016 don’t have permission to graze on federal land after all. On Friday, a U.S. District Court rejected the Trump administration’s decision to restore grazing rights to Dwight and Steven Hammond, the father and son pair at the center of years of controversy in eastern Oregon. Read More
One day after its historic impeachment votes, the Democratic-led House gave President Donald Trump an overwhelming bipartisan victory Thursday on a renegotiated trade agreement with Canada and Mexico. By a 385-41 vote, the House approved a bill that puts in place terms of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement. Read More
The possible impeachment of President Donald Trump is not the only thing moving through the U.S. House of Representatives. On Wednesday, the House passed a bipartisan bill that could give undocumented farmworkers a path to legal residence and relief to farmers short on labor. Read More
More than a dozen haystacks have been burned under suspicious circumstances in central Washington since early October. It’s concerning to the hay industry and law enforcement. Continue Reading Suspicious Haystack Fires In Read More
Dairy farmers in Massachusetts are using food waste to create renewable energy. Each farm produces enough to power about 1,500 homes. This helps prevent the release of methane, a greenhouse gas. Continue Reading Shockingly Chewable: Farmers Read More
Heavy rains and even an early fall snow in October matted down the garbanzo bean plants tight to the land. That means Palouse-region farmers are scrambling to dry out beans to get them to silos and co-ops. It's on top of already depressed prices due to international trade wars. Read More
The number of family farms seeking bankruptcy protection grew 24% over the last year, according to an American Farm Bureau Federation analysis of recent federal court data. The analysis found family farm bankruptcies are rising fastest in the Northwest. Read More
Environmental and Latino groups are hosting a clean drinking water forum Saturday, Oct. 26. The goal is to help people learn how they can get their water tested – and why it’s important. Continue Reading Latino Read More
Fertilizer runoff is fueling the toxic algae bloom in the Gulf of Mexico. Farmers could help by growing crops in rotation to reduce the need for fertilizer. But it's unclear who will buy them. Continue Reading Diversifying Crops Read More
After more than 20 years of development by the Washington State University Tree Fruit Research Commission, the Cosmic Crisp is ready to come to hit store shelves. The goal of new variety is to be attractive to consumers, easy to grow and easy to store over a long period of time. Read More
Companies are trying to figure out the risks to their profits from a warming planet. Some of them are turning to high-tech tools of climate science. Continue Reading As The Climate Warms, Companies Scramble To Calculate The Risk Read More
Join Northwest Public Broadcasting’s Gillian Coldsnow and Anna King and the American Association of University Women Palouse-Garfield Branch for a lively discussion of women in agriculture and STEM fields. WHEN:… Continue Read More
A critical navigation lock on the lower Columbia River is expected to reopen this weekend, between 10 PM Friday and 10 AM Saturday, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Continue Reading Critical Read More
The Northwest’s soft white wheat harvest is in full swing, but that grain is going nowhere fast. That’s because of an emergency repair to a lock at Bonneville Dam on the Lower Columbia River. Continue Reading Bonneville Dam Lock Closure Read More
Right now, Northwest wheat farmers are wrapping up their harvest in many areas. But across the country, farmers are losing money on every load of that golden grain. Continue Reading ‘You Have To Remain An Optimist.’ Read More
Lots of American companies have lost sales since the Trump administration and China embarked on the current cycle of tariff-raising and retaliation. Few, if any, have been compensated as handsomely as farmers. Continue Reading Read More
Oregon State University created something of a sensation back in 2015 when researchers announced they discovered and patented "seaweed that tastes like bacon." Four years later, the hard work of commercialization continues, but guilt-free bacon from the sea remains elusive. Read More
If everyone around the globe began to eat the recommended amounts of fruits and vegetables, there wouldn't be enough to go around. That's the conclusion of a new study published in The Lancet Planetary Health. Continue Reading If We All Ate Read More
With the name corpse flower, this rare, tropical plant set to bloom at Washington State University Vancouver has quite the reputation to live up to. “People describe the smell as a mix of rotten fish and dirty socks,” said Steve Sylvester, associate professor of molecular biosciences at the Salmon Creek, Washington, campus. Read More
The federal Bureau of Land Management will not pursue lethal measures such as euthanasia or selling horses for slaughter to deal with what officials say is an ecological and fiscal crisis caused by too many wild horses on rangelands in the U.S. West, an official said Thursday. Read More
Home-delivered fast food is a booming global business, but when it comes to French fries, there’s a hitch. They often get soggy on the ride. So now, top fry-makers are racing to perfect a crispy fry that can survive a 15-minute ride with a food delivery service. Companies right here in the Northwest are frying up a crisp solution to this soggy situation. Read More
After hours of testimony, a federal judge in Portland extended a temporary restraining order as he considers whether or not to prevent a controversial Harney County ranching family from grazing their cattle on certain parcels of public land in southeast Oregon. Read More
After almost 10 months of waiting, residents of Joseph, Oregon, can feel more confident drinking their water and swimming in nearby Wallowa Lake, according to lab test results released Thursday. Continue Reading Lab Results Read More
Bee colony death continues to rise. According to the Bee Informed Partnership's latest survey, released this week, U.S. beekeepers lost nearly 40% of their honey bee colonies last winter — the greatest reported winter hive loss since the partnership started its surveys 13 years ago. Read More
Of the 70,000 acres of mudflats in Willapa Bay, less than 10,000 acres are used for shellfish cultivation. Researchers estimate about a quarter of that farmable land has already been taken over by burrowing shrimp. But the battle over land between shellfish growers and the shrimp is not entirely new. Read More
Oregon State University has established what it considers to be the nation's largest hemp research center. This comes amid a surge of farmer interest in the Northwest to grow the non-psychoactive cousin of marijuana. Continue Read More
Just in the last year, the wine-in-can category has grown by more than 100 percent across the nation, measured by volume of units sold.
The third largest winery in the nation is Ste. Michelle Wine Estates, based in Woodinville, Wash. Now, it’s pouring huge amounts of juice into aluminum cans under its 14 Hands brand. Read More
Plastic is under attack these days for the environmental problems it causes. But sustainability-minded shoppers might not be aware that many organic farmers — like their conventional farming neighbors — also rely on plastic. It's spread over the ground as a form of mulch to suppress weeds, conserve water and aid plant growth. Read More
President Trump announced that he will begin imposing tariffs on all goods imported from Mexico beginning June 10 unless that country does more to help reduce illegal immigration from Central America. Continue Reading Read More
Oregon is awash in pot, glutted with so much legal weed that if growing were to stop today, it could take more than six years by one estimate to smoke or eat it all. Now, the state is looking to curb production. Continue Reading Oregon Read More
American soil. Those are two words that are commonly used to stir up patriotic feelings. They are also words that can't be be taken for granted, because today nearly 30 million acres of U.S. farmland are held by foreign investors. That number has doubled in the past two decades, which is raising alarm bells in farming communities. Read More
A new poll from NPR, Harvard and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation gives a glimpse into rural life in America today, finding that many people living in rural communities live on the edge financially. Continue Reading Poll: Read More