EMPOWERING PRODUCERS OF FOOD & FIBER
DAIRY SPECIAL SECTION
INSIDE
Friday, June 4, 2021
Volume 94, Number 23
CapitalPress.com
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THE HEARTBEAT
OF PULSES
Courtesy photo
Tim McGreevy, about 6 years
old, with his father Dan Mc-
Greevy, a crop adviser and
plant manager for the Mc-
Gregor Co. for 33 years. Dan
passed away in 2010.
Tim McGreevy, executive director of the USA Dry Pea and Lentil Council, at his family’s farm outside Pullman, Wash.
Courtesy photo
Tim McGreevy believes in the
future of dry peas and lentils
T
TIM MCGREEVY
Occupation: Chief exec-
utive offi cer, USA Dry Pea
and Lentil Council
Age: 62
Hometown: Pullman,
Wash.
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
im McGreevy practices what he
preaches.
A few years ago, the USA Dry
Pea and Lentil Council, where
McGreevy is chief executive
offi cer, promoted the “half-cup
habit,” challenging consumers to eat half a
cup of pulses three times a week.
So, for breakfast every morning, McGreevy
and his wife, Christine, started eating eggs and
Young Tim McGreevy
shows a pig at the fair.
lentils — or chickpeas or beans.
Now, he says, he’s even more of a true
believer in pulses.
“I’ve taken that campaign and brought it into
my own life,” he said. “I just feel better. These
crops, they are so good for your health, but they
also just taste great. I’m the better for it.”
McGreevy, 62, has a wide, gentle grin. He
is thoughtful and at every moment seems over-
fi lled with gratitude for his family and career.
“I’ve been blessed my whole life,” he said
at the council’s offi ce, which straddles the Ida-
ho-Washington state line near Moscow, Idaho.
When McGreevy fi rst took the job nearly
30 years ago, pulses — peas, lentils and chick-
peas, also known as garbanzo beans — were
grown on about 400,000 acres in those two
states.
See Pulses, Page 11
Current location: Moscow,
Idaho
Education: Bachelor’s de-
gree in general agriculture
and communications; mas-
ter’s degree in agricultural
economics, Washington
State University
Websites: https://www.
usapulses.org/
Drought looms in Washington; relief fund dry
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
tee, said the state is unprepared to
respond to hardships caused by
water shortages.
“It caught us fl at-footed because
our mountain snow was so good,”
she said. “It appeared that we were
going to be OK, and all of a sudden
we’re not.”
The driest March-April since
1926 has put 54% of Washing-
than half of normal, according
to the Northwest River Forecast
Council.
Ecology issued a drought advi-
sory for east of the Cascades, as
well as southwest Washington and
the coast. The advisory serves as
an alert and doesn’t activate any
government action.
If the state declares a drought
emergency, Ecology will be able
to authorize water-right holders
to use emergency wells, but that
won’t help dryland farmers.
See Drought, Page 11
Pandemic ignites organic sales
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
U.S. organic sales reached new highs in
2020, jumping by a record 12.4% to $61.9
billion. It marked the fi rst time that total sales
of organic food and non-food products sur-
passed the $60 billion mark.
The annual growth rate was more than
twice the 2019 pace of 5%, according to the
2021 Organic Industry Survey released this
week by the Organic Trade Association.
Demand jumped by near-record levels
in almost every organic food aisle in 2020,
increasing U.S. organic food sales a record
12.8% to a new high of $56.4 billion. Almost
6% of all food sold in the U.S. in 2020 was
certifi ed organic.
The COVID-19 pandemic caused con-
sumer dollars to shift almost overnight from
restaurants and carry-out to groceries. Con-
sumer habits were upended, online grocery
shopping and grocery deliveries exploded and
new products were tried as families ate three
meals a day at home, the Organic Trade Asso-
ciation reported.
“The pandemic caused abrupt changes in
all of our lives. We’ve been eating at home
Sierra Dawn McClain/Capital Press
See Organic, Page 11
Organic food sales increased at a record pace in 2020,
according to the Organic Trade Association.
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The Washington Department of
Ecology warned May 28 a drought
may develop, but if conditions
worsen the state has no money set
aside for relief projects.
Washington lawmakers didn’t
appropriate funds for a drought
emergency in the new two-year
$59 billion operating budget Gov.
Jay Inslee signed this month.
Moses Lake Sen. Judy War-
nick, the top-ranking Republican
on the Senate agriculture commit-
ton in a drought, the U.S. Drought
Monitor reported May 28.
Portions of Klickitat, Yakima,
Benton, Walla Walla and Columbia
counties are in “extreme drought,”
the second-worst category behind
“exceptional drought.”
An above-normal snowpack
continues to supply irrigation dis-
tricts, including in snowmelt-de-
pendent Yakima County, the
state’s top agricultural county. The
dry spring, however, has lowered
rain-reliant rivers.
River fl ows from Spokane to
the Olympic Peninsula are less