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 […]Read 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 […]Read More
The Washington apple harvest is underway. Bins of Red Delicious are loaded onto a truck. (Photo courtesy of the Washington Apple Commission) Listen Washington’s apple crop is projected to be […]Read More
There’s a deadline fast approaching for the cannabis industry in Washington. By September 1st, cannabis producers must sell all their goods produced before April of this year — or throw it out.
Micah Sherman, co-owner of Raven Grass in Olympia, has settled on this fate.
“We're probably going to end up with quite a bit of product that we're going to have to throw away,” Read 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
Rainier cherries in the Northwest bloomed after the snow, so the crop should be stronger. (Photo courtesy of the Washington State Fruit Commission) Listen Snow fell throughout the Northwest in […]Read More
Carol Miles and volunteers assist with a harvest of this year’s cantaloupes in Mount Vernon, Wash. Listen Correspondent Lauren Paterson tells us how a bit of elegant plant science is […]Read More
Aspersión de pesticidas en los cultivos del estado de Washington. Foto: Cortesía de Pablo Palmández. Read Un nuevo estudio muestra que las personas de color, los indígenas y las comunidades […]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 […]Read More
Wet weather and varying temperatures had impacts on Washington farming in February Listen Read By Brandon Hollingsworth For Washington’s agricultural interests, February was marked by wet weather and temperature shifts. […]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
Climate change is forcing creative water storage options in the Yakima River Basin to ensure enough water for fish, cities and farmers. 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.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.Read More
Washington state ag community scrambles after massive flooding kills milk cattle, sickens others and leaves herds across the state short on feed.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. Read More
There’s a new tool to prevent pesticide exposure and illness among Latinx farmworkers. The University of Washington created the app, “Pesticide Labels, Now!’ to address language barriers on technical labels written in English.Read More
A large-scale Northwest farmer allegedly stole Snake River irrigation water during this past summer. And Washington state has clamped down hard with an unusually-large fine.Read More
Researchers at Washington State University are developing a new way to measure soil health that could be a game changer in agriculture.Read 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
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.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.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.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. Read More
Record heat across the Northwest is taking a toll on agriculture – both the crops and the workers who harvest them. 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. 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.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.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.Read More
In this episode of "Traverse Talks with Sueann Ramella," Will O'Neal and Renee Love, leaders within the organization Backyard Harvest, share how the group serves its community and how both they and many of their volunteers got a close-up view of food insecurity within local households.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.Read More
In this episode of Traverse Talks with Sueann Ramella, Will O’Neal and Renee Love, leaders within the organization Backyard Harvest, share how the group serves its community and how both […]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
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. 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 tribes.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. Read More
The company that makes Aplets and Cotlets, the famous jellied fruit candy from central Washington, is calling it quits this June. Served up for Christmas and family reunions alike, the gelatinous apple and apricot treat studded with walnuts was famous far beyond Washington’s borders. 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
Since December, Easterday Ranches in WA has been embroiled in an alleged scandalous cattle rustling scheme. Now, a bankruptcy case calls into question whether a $225M lawsuit will go forward.Read More
The case of so-called modern-day cattle rustling in southeastern WA involving 200,000 fake cows and $225M is getting more complex by the day. Now, Easterday Ranches has filed for bankruptcy.Read More
A U.S. House subcommittee is investigating coronavirus outbreaks at meatpacking plants, citing the deaths of more than 250 employees nationwide and accusing the Trump administration of failing to enforce worker safety laws.Read More
As the public media Northwest News Network reported Wednesday, Tyson recently filed a suit against Washington-based Easterday Ranches seeking to get a neutral third party to take over the business until accounts could be settled. It came after Easterday allegedly made up hundreds of thousands of cattle on paper and fictitiously fed them, costing Tyson more than $225 Read More
A major Washington cattle operator allegedly “fed” over 200,000 head of cattle that didn’t exist for years. Now Tyson Fresh Meats, Inc is suing. Tyson says in a lawsuit filed in Franklin County Superior Court this week that its losses are more than $225 million. The losses are from false cattle sales and feed costs. Read More
A potato processing plant in the central WA town of Warden burned down in a dramatic overnight fire Thursday. It’s a hit to the already struggling NW potato industry. Read More
The agriculture industry is asking Washington state Gov. Jay Inslee to move migrant farmworkers and food factory workers closer to the front of the line for the coronavirus vaccine because they perform work that cannot be delayed or performed remotely.Read More
The aid, delivered in two separate packages over the course of the year, went to a wide variety of people in agriculture, including corn and soybean farmers, cattle ranchers, and fruit and vegetable producers. The $46 billion in direct government payments to farmers in 2020 broke the previous annual record by about $10 billion, even after accounting for inflation.Read More
