What Is The Toll Of Trade Wars On U.S. Agriculture?

By PBS Newshour
Larry McMillan drives a combine as he harvests barley Friday, Aug. 24, 2007, near Moscow, Idaho. The region's warm and dry weather has provided optimal conditions for the continued harvest season. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
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

‘On The Tipping Point’ Of The Spear: U.S. Asparagus Farmers Worry As Import Competition Grows

By Anna King
Washington asparagus is just starting to be cut, but farmers worry if their industry will hold on for the long haul. Cheaper imports from Mexico and Peru are putting pressure on Washington, California and Michigan farmers. ANNA KING / NW NEWS NETWORK
Growers in Washington, California and Michigan raise the majority of the nation’s domestic asparagus -- and Washington’s season is on. But business in U.S. spears is noticeably dwindling due to cheaper competition from foreign markets.That’s because there’s increasing amounts of cheaper asparagus from Peru and Mexico coming in: fresh, canned and frozen. And that’s Read More

Pulse Of The Palouse: Trade Wars Hitting Northwest Farmers Who Grow Chickpeas, Lentils And Peas

By Anna King
Snow-covered farm fields roll out outside of Kendrick, Idaho. Farmers are stumped on what to plant this coming spring, as many of their traditional dryland crops are priced below the cost of production right now. CREDIT: ANNA KING/N3
Farmers who grow pulse crops -- garbanzo beans, lentils and peas -- are in a bind this winter. They have to decide very soon what they’re planting for next year, and contract their seed. Pulse crops are often an important rotation crop for Western wheat growers. But there are record amounts of garbanzo beans in dry storage, and little movement of that heavily-exported Read More

This Pesticide Poisons, But It’s Still Sprayed On Washington Orchards — Including Christmas Trees

By Eilís O'Neil
Cristina Campos removes damaged apples from the flume, the front end of the packing line, on Tuesday November, 20, 2018, at Gilbert Orchards in Yakima. CREDIT: KUOW PHOTO/MEGAN FARMER
The chemical’s especially dangerous for babies and small children because it can have lasting neurological effects. Chlorpyrifos can blow from orchards into nearby houses; parents who work in orchards can transport the chemical home on their clothes and in their cars; and chlorpyrifos can make its way into developing fetuses through umbilical cord blood. Read More

City Fruit: Seattle’s Urban Harvest

By Gigi Yellen
Credit: City Fruit
Once upon a time when Seattle was smaller, orchards dotted the shores of Lake Washington. Today, many of those old apple, plum and fig trees still thrive within urban neighborhoods. And every year around this time, they surprise new property owners—who may never have lived with fruit trees before—with chores they don’t know how to… Read More

Apple Rescuer, Gentle Composer: Gerald Finzi

By Gigi Yellen
Baxter's Pearmain (Credit: National Fruit Collection); Gerald Finzi, reprinted by kind permission of Boosey & Hawkes
Consider this year’s apples: Born from the seeds of an earlier generation’s trees, the fruit you hold in your hand this fall will allow you “to shake hands with a good friend over the centuries.” That’s how the composer and antiquarian Gerald Finzi put it. As your apples ripen, with the sweet strains of classical music… Read More
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