A4
THE ASTORIAN • SATuRdAy, July 24, 2021
OPINION
editor@dailyastorian.com
KARI BORGEN
Publisher
DERRICK DePLEDGE
Editor
Founded in 1873
SHANNON ARLINT
Circulation Manager
JOHN D. BRUIJN
Production Manager
CARL EARL
Systems Manager
WRITER’S NOTEBOOK
Rooted
in the
work
T
he county fair is a walk through
the culmination of thousands of
hours of labor. It shows the time,
money and love local youth spent on
their animals. It is also a preview of the
future faces of the region’s agriculture
community.
Growing up on the North Coast,
I remember seeing friends at the fair
proud of their livestock — the time they
spent on them, the rela-
tionships they devel-
oped — but also bitter-
sweet when it was time
to say goodbye after the
auction.
For centuries, the
image of the farmer,
JONATHAN
alone, toiling in a field,
WILLIAMS
herding cattle and tend-
ing to livestock with a
pastoral sun ablaze above has dominated
the cultural imagination.
Even now, you don’t have to look far
for scenes on the farm. Last year, a cam-
paign video from President Joe Biden
featured farmworkers set to an upbeat
rendition of “America the Beautiful.”
While the farmer remains a treasured
national icon, small farmers need help.
Some suffer from a lack of autonomy,
barely break even and don’t have a suc-
cession plan.
Author Grace Olmstead tackles that
and more in her smart, compelling book,
“Uprooted: Recovering the Legacy of
the Places We’ve Left Behind.”
While the North Coast has a stron-
ger local food scene — farmers mar-
kets, direct-to-consumer sales and the
new Astoria Food Hub — the question
of keeping young people and attracting
others who’ve gone away is just as pre-
scient here.
Rootedness, what keeps some firmly
in place and drives others to seek new
opportunities, is the main focus of Olm-
stead’s book.
Set in the author’s hometown of
Emmett, Idaho, a small town near
Boise, Olmstead takes readers through
the farming town’s boom and bust. She
probes for answers to fix it, along the
way telling the tale of farming’s decline
in America and the emptying out of rural
spaces.
Olmstead, who now works as a jour-
nalist and lives in Virginia, grew up in a
family that devoted their life’s labor to
the land. But things aren’t the same in
Emmett. The roots that once held every-
thing together aren’t as strong. Many
Hailey Hoffman/The Astorian
Madi Olson hugs her sheep, ‘Karen,’ goodbye at the end of last year’s auction at the Clatsop County Fair.
WHIlE NOT EVERyONE WANTS TO FARM,
STRENGTHENING TIES IN THE AGRICulTuRE
COMMuNITy PROVIdES, AS OlMSTEAd MAKES
ClEAR, A CONTINuEd FuTuRE FOR lOCAl FOOd.
‘Uprooted: Recovering the Legacy of
the Places We’ve Left Behind,’ by Grace
Olmstead.
who were raised there choose not to stay
after graduating high school, and for
those that do, farming isn’t as lucrative a
career as it once was.
Olmstead is frank in admitting that
nationally, not all believe small towns
matter.
Today, less than 2% of Americans
work on farms. A report from Boise
State University estimated Treasure Val-
ley, where Emmett is located, could lose
between 59% and 64% of its farmland
by 2100.
Through interviews and reporting,
Olmstead shows the grit needed for
farming. She writes of a family whose
“dream required nursing sick cows
and birthing calves in the middle of
the night, tending crops in the swelter-
ing summer heat, scrimping and saving
every penny in order to keep the farm
alive.”
It isn’t hard to see why so many fam-
ilies struggle with succession. And with
that lack of planning comes a loss of
knowledge in how to work with the
land.
A farming counterculture is emerg-
ing, though. Organic farming, people
rehabbing the land and creating commu-
nity direct-to-consumer sales are reim-
aging what farming can be.
A need for creativity in solving farm-
ing’s myriad problems is clear.
Olmstead traces farming’s decline
to the post-World War II pressures on
farmers to mass produce in order to feed
the world and the 1970s culture of get-
ting big or getting out. She notes how
rural towns are having their worth deter-
mined by corporations, leaving farmers
barely breaking even and isolating them
from their community.
While Idaho’s small farms have
suffered, the state has grown. Olm-
stead writes that some state officials
believe the population could increase
by 200,000 residents by 2026. And with
that has come suburban sprawl, pushing
farmers off the land.
Olmstead offers some solutions.
She argues that a new system should
come about that allows farmers to fight
monopolies and strengthens their com-
munity ties.
Farmers have a close kinship with
the land. They are more in tune to it.
They watch it change. Olmstead argues
that for areas to thrive again and succes-
sion plans to work, farmers should have
closer ties to young people.
But young people don’t just want a
job; they want a community. Through
local boards and societies, Olmstead
argues, they can avoid the isolation that
plagues too many farmers.
As the Class of 2034 enters kinder-
garten this fall, what will the agricul-
ture opportunities be on the North Coast
when they graduate?
The coast is a truly beautiful place to
live. But that alone won’t keep young
people here.
While not everyone wants to farm,
strengthening ties in the agriculture
community provides, as Olmstead
makes clear, a continued future for local
food.
Jonathan Williams is the associate
editor of The Astorian.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Out of character
Inconvenience
I
T
was born in Astoria, and I am a proud
graduate of Astoria High School. After
I moved away, I served on the Friends of
the Astoria Column board for many years,
raising awareness and money to restore an
important piece of Astoria and Oregon’s
history.
The support from local government and
caring local individuals showed the beau-
tiful heart of the community, and how
important Astoria’s character is to all who
love the town.
That’s why I’m struggling to under-
stand why the city is considering allowing
a building to be constructed that is out of
character with Astoria’s authentic and clas-
sic Uppertown neighborhood.
The building’s size would dwarf the
buildings around it, and not fit in architec-
turally. One of those buildings is the U.S.
Custom House, which is an ode to Asto-
ria’s historic role as a U.S. port of entry for
goods reaching the West Coast.
It would block the Columbia River
view of a beloved lifelong Astoria citi-
zen, Vincent Tadei. It would affect access
to his home, his driveway and put his and
other nearby property owners at risk of
landslides.
I’m grateful for the forethought of
Astoria’s city leaders in crafting the city’s
comprehensive plan, which identifies the
Uppertown neighborhood as one with “a
stable neighborhood character.”
It also states: “The predominantly res-
idential character of the area upland of
Marine Drive/Lief Erikson Drive will be
preserved.” If the city follows its own
plan, this building should not be allowed
to move forward.
GAIL DUNDAS
Gearhart
here are sections of towns along U.S.
Highway 101 Business. The public
service buses used to run over this route,
and still do, if the New Youngs Bay Bridge
is impassable for any reason.
Now the paratransit buses do not ser-
vice this area, almost surrounded by bus
routes, because Highway 101 Business is
not a bus route.
While this condition sometimes incon-
veniences me, one way or another, I think
it is disastrous to taxpaying businessmen
who have located their businesses in this
area or, more likely, they were located
there before the New Youngs Bay Bridge
went in.
Competing businesses have opened up
in more favorite areas, exacerbating the
problem. Also, I’m wondering if any of the
residents of this neglected area, who might
otherwise qualify for this service, are being
denied.
Most of these competing businesses
have located in areas that were wetlands
when I got here 20-some years ago. I was
a wetland specialist before I retired, so I
know these areas were wetlands, from my
car as I drove by.
Standing water 11 to 12 months of the
year is usually enough to indicate a wet-
land. I also know it is easy and profitable
to influence a wetland specialist to certify
that a wetland is not a wetland.
BENJAMIN A. GREAVES
Seaside
Justify
T
he letter “Excited,” which ran July
6, seems to attempt to justify deacon
Lewis Nimmo’s feelings of excitement
at the prospect of his church’s impending
plans to construct a multipurpose building
within a historical district in an Uppertown
neighborhood.
While good intentions and elated feel-
ings may be considered sufficient ratio-
nale to build a structure that will not only
change the landscape, but have a signifi-
cant impact on the people and surrounding
neighborhoods, we feel the need to ask for
a more comprehensive, well-thought out
plan before proceeding further.
Are you aware that the structure you
are so in favor of building is facing con-
siderable opposition by members of the
community, who would be significantly
impacted by its presence? Are you aware
that this opposition is being voiced by your
neighbors?
Are you concerned about your neigh-
bors’ feelings and views (“And who is my
neighbor?” Luke 10:25-37)? Are you pre-
pared to push through with your proposed
plans, in spite of this opposition?
Has this proposal been adopted by the
congregation you represent? Do they share
your enthusiasm? Have you asked them?
Going forward, we would ask that you
consider the needs and desires of not only
the community and members of Beth-
any Lutheran Church, who you so enthu-
siastically strive to serve, but the neigh-
bor next door, who may also be in need of
decision-making that is based on sound-
ness, consensus and compassion, and that
reflects the good intentions of all members.
TRICIA FRISK
Snow Camp, North Carolina