cherries

Cherry growers say the threat of deportations under President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown is keeping the migrant workforce they rely on this time of year from showing up to work. They describe an increasingly urgent labor crisis that could leave cherries rotting in the field, and farmers holding the bill.

(Runtime 3:26)The French family expects a crowd for cherries this warm week.Richland’s Ray French Orchard has been a you-pick since 1988. They market…

(Runtime 4:11) On the south slope of Rattlesnake Mountain in the Yakima Valley, north of Prosser, water is measured by the puny drip. Jim Willard grows…

(Runtime 3:45) The cherries you’ll find at Cherry Ridge Farms in Kennewick, are not your typical cherries. They’re huge and expensive – super deluxe, and…

Celestino Mendoza loads colorful plastic asparagus lugs off the flatbed of a '95 Ford pickup at the end of a warm day.His woven straw hat shades his face,…

Snow fell throughout the Northwest in early April just as the cherries were blooming. That has had an effect. Correspondent Lauren Paterson reports on…

From The Dalles, Oregon to Brewster, Washington, Northwest cherry growers are checking their orchards now, just before harvest. Infected trees have to be cut down. And the disease can spread like wildfire from tree to tree until an entire orchard is just stumps.

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.

Retaliatory tariffs levied by China on U.S. goods are taking a toll on Pacific Northwest farm exports. Details about cancelled orders came out this week at a state Senate committee hearing in Seattle.

The housing shortage in Yakima is coupled with a farm labor shortage. When workers do come, where do they live? The largest farmworker complex in the state opened in Yakima this month. The revamped FairBridge hotel now hosts 800 beds for temporary farm workers. As it opens, critics think it may set a dangerous precedent: Other farmers might start buying up area housing for their own workers - leaving permanent residents searching for affordable housing.