I normally tell people I am “shop size 80-feet by 120-feet,” when they ask what I want for Christmas but, this year I want policies that make sense for Washington state’s ag community.

Early this year, the 2022 Census of Agriculture was released by the USDA. The data was alarming. Our state lost 3,717 farms and ranches between 2017 and 2022. That is two operations a day, every day for five years. It was a number so sobering I wrote it on a sticky note and posted it prominently in my office. 

I believe ag and policy are about people. The sticky note shows a number that represents 3,717 farms and ranches and the people who used to be part of them. The average farm in Washington state employs 3-4 people annually, statistically speaking. Which means, in five years of farm and ranch losses, at least 13,115 people lost their jobs working in agriculture or took jobs outside of agriculture.

Working in agriculture is certainly about food production but it is also about tending to the land, caring for animals, understanding nature, and having an innate belief that tomorrow will come. These are not ideas that can easily be written into policy but there are ways to incorporate them if policy is driven by a desire to honor people. 

A new report surveying ag economists across the nation notes that 56 percent of those economists say ag is in a recession and 81 percent say, if ag is not in a recession, it is on the brink of one. The same report noted 94 percent of ag economists believe the “environment of low commodity prices and high input costs will accelerate consolidation” of farms, meaning smaller farms will be sold to larger corporations. Ultimately, eliminating more farmworker jobs and forcing more of our small, local farms and ranches out of business.

The first round of riparian buffer bills – establishing buffers of 100 feet beyond the 100-year flood high water mark for fish habitat statewide – were written without consultation of the farm community. The effects on our food producing community would have been devastating, taking even more jobs from hundreds of people by closing many of the farms and ranches in Whatcom and Skagit counties, and other areas around the state. The ag slavery bill – legislation with the goal of forcing farms to track human trafficking through the entire food supply chain – would have crushed our food producers with logistics they could not manage once their products left the farm. Again, putting farmworker jobs at risk for little (if any) tangible benefit.

Finally, the full implementation of ag overtime is taking money away from our farmworkers. It is not a lack of understanding on the part of our farmworkers or greed on the part of ag employers that is lowering overall employee income. It is a lack of empathy from policymakers who are unwilling to listen to the majority of people who are living with the day-to-day consequences of lawmakers’ decisions.

The holidays are a season of hope. My hope is for our lawmakers to reevaluate how they choose to view their influence on the farm and ranch community in the coming year. Nothing brings good cheer like a plate piled high with the bounty this state has to offer. Let us find ways to better support providing that bounty by listening to the people directly involved in its growth. 

No matter what policy approaches arrive under the tree, or in session, my sincerest wish is they are driven by a desire to help every person in the farming and ranching community. It is a community that is as eclectic and varied as a Christmas tree decorated with ornaments from a decades’ worth school projects. Every ornament is important. Every paper ring garland has a story. Every lopsided star has a memory. Individually, they don’t make for much of a display but, together, they make for a beautiful tree.

Similarly, every employer, picker, milker, investor, member of the farming and ranching community is part of a larger whole. Individually, our stories and memories are important and compelling. Together, they make for a beautiful food production community in our state.

From my office on the farm to your part of the state, I wish you and yours a wonderful holiday season filled with joy and the bounty our farmers and ranchers provide. Washington state produces more than 300 food items on more than 32,000 farms and ranches, employing more than 113,000 people. We lead the nation in the production of apples, blueberries, hops, onions, pears, sweet cherries, and spearmint oil; ranking second in production of apricots, grapes, potatoes, raspberries, and winter wheat; and are number three in dried peas, lentils and peppermint oil.